tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-42959199124533898092024-03-14T05:45:26.103-04:00Create Prettyby Carolinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02516313415450274208noreply@blogger.comBlogger406125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4295919912453389809.post-65653981748295033682021-09-07T15:13:00.007-04:002023-03-02T14:01:32.908-05:009/11 books<p>I wanted to share a few books I came across recently. It suddenly hit me last week that I had no age appropriate books on 9/11 for my kiddos. I am also ALWAYS looking for books to add to our home library. Here are the books I personally purchased and I'll include a list at the bottom of the post of a few others for a bit of variety!</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizIn8JORYF10n_5FYmR2xK7hZOnbFIcnniF5X7jctlBi03tHWnLO00fvRARBaJmmKthNaz_R5lHhFlLqVS3KtaSLtZaEHmClJI31m6WnPB5xppo_4XZCpfBF3bHGNPKGBkwoH_WOEOmKY/s2048/IMG_9713_jpg.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="2048" height="249" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizIn8JORYF10n_5FYmR2xK7hZOnbFIcnniF5X7jctlBi03tHWnLO00fvRARBaJmmKthNaz_R5lHhFlLqVS3KtaSLtZaEHmClJI31m6WnPB5xppo_4XZCpfBF3bHGNPKGBkwoH_WOEOmKY/w249-h249/IMG_9713_jpg.JPG" width="249" /></a></div><p>Fireboat is a book about a fireboat name the John J. Harvey that was retired in the 1990s. A group of friends purchased her and fixed her up to her former glory. On 9/11 John J. Harvey came out of retirement to help the firefighters battle the blaze at Ground Zero. It has great illustrations and is easy to read!</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51fbnM0TbWL._SX218_BO1,204,203,200_QL40_FMwebp_.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="220" data-original-width="220" height="220" src="https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51fbnM0TbWL._SX218_BO1,204,203,200_QL40_FMwebp_.jpg" width="220" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">{<a href="https://amzn.to/3BNxx6S" target="_blank">FIREBOAT</a>}</div><div><br /></div>Unfortunately I ordered this one too late and it won't be here on time, but if I could judge a book by it's cover this one looks beautiful! I read many reviews and it came highly recommended! I still purchased it and am looking forward to it arriving later this month. <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/510DtHDLp4L._SX260_.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="260" data-original-width="260" height="260" src="https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/510DtHDLp4L._SX260_.jpg" width="260" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">{<a href="https://amzn.to/3ySdySz" target="_blank">THIS VERY TREE</a>}</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><u>America is Under Attack</u> is probably my favorite account of 9/11 that is written very factually yet kid friendly. Its journalist writing is engaging but easy to understand. 10/10 would recommend this for elementary aged kids and up.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51PUmIXRk3S._SX218_BO1,204,203,200_QL40_FMwebp_.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="283" data-original-width="220" height="283" src="https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51PUmIXRk3S._SX218_BO1,204,203,200_QL40_FMwebp_.jpg" width="220" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">{<a href="https://amzn.to/2YrcoRs" target="_blank">AMERICA IS UNDER ATTACK</a>}</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">If you are looking for a book for yourself, <u>The Day the World Came to Town</u> is incredibly heart warming and a reminder that in the midst of darkness there is still so much good! Hundreds of planes were forced to land in a tiny town in Newfoundland because the US closed its borders to incoming plans on 9/11. This little town rallied to help the stranded, weary travelers. The book is written from so many points of view and is honestly just fascinating with all the logistics they had to figure out! </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51+DYMBoa7S._SY346_.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="346" data-original-width="230" height="346" src="https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51+DYMBoa7S._SY346_.jpg" width="230" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">{<a href="https://amzn.to/3n9IOKy" target="_blank">THE DAY THE WORLD CAME TO TOWN</a>}</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Here are the runners-up that we may add to our collection at some point: </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="https://amzn.to/3toBHzi" target="_blank">What were the Twin Towers?</a> (What Was? Who Was? series)</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #0f1111; font-family: inherit;"><a href="https://amzn.to/3nc34ew" target="_blank">30,000 Stitches: The Inspiring Story of the National 9/11 Flag</a></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #0f1111; font-family: inherit;"><a href="https://amzn.to/3nc3jGs" target="_blank">I Survived the Attacks of September 11th, 2001</a> My oldest has read this and enjoyed it. There are many books in the I Survived series that are worth reading! Check out your local library! </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">I hope that helps! The teacher in me loves using children's books to help teach things that feel overwhelming. Don't forget to check your local library! So many make it easy to place holds online and ours even has curbside pickup! </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">-Caroline </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); color: #666666; font-family: "droid sans"; font-size: 13px;">*contains affiliate links. Affiliate links are a win win. They provide a direct link to the products I love, and they help support the blog! Read my disclosures </span><a href="http://www.createprettyblog.com/p/disclosureprivacy.html" style="background-color: white; color: #b1b1b1; font-family: "droid sans"; font-size: 13px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.7s ease 0s;">here</a><span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); color: #666666; font-family: "droid sans"; font-size: 13px;">. </span></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div></div>by Carolinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02516313415450274208noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4295919912453389809.post-15508064811650969812017-07-21T10:50:00.000-04:002023-03-02T14:01:32.900-05:00PSA from Teacher Caroline | Laminator<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
I can.not. believe that I have lived 30 years AND taught 5 years of school without a personal laminator. Now that I'm NOT teaching, isn't it ironic that I finally bought one for myself? 😂</div>
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I had been eyeing the Scotch brand laminators because those are what I saw in the stores, but when I went to order, Amazon's price for the Scotch brand was slightly ridiculous. I noticed that they had <a href="http://amzn.to/2uhNEKd">THEIR OWN BRAND</a> for less than $20! $20 was about what I was willing to spend. Also what sets this laminator above others I've used is NO CARRIER SHEET! The others I've personally used had a protective sheet over the laminating sheet pouch (which basically creates an extra step). This laminator doesn't require that protective sheet. I had great success just using the <a href="http://amzn.to/2ui0qrY">Amazon brand laminating pouches</a>.<br />
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I actually paid $19 for it-- and RIGHT NOW it's on sale for $17.88 which is so awesome since school is about to start! Also can we have a moment for public schools starting July 31? #Icanteven I'm not even teaching and I can think of 100 reasons why I needed this. I plan to label some bins in our linen closet and I want the labels to be protected. Also with homeschooling I'm sure a bunch of things will come up that I will be glad to have this.<br />
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Also pictured are these ADORABLE snack sized baggies. WHERE WERE THESE when I was making centers for my classroom?? My first laminating project was these alphabet cards that were sent home with Emmie at the end of last year and these bags fit them perfectly! You can easily add them to your grocery pickup order (<a href="http://r.wmt.co/fD7l7">use my link for $10 off!</a>)<br />
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Not sure how long that price will stay on Amazon for the laminator but here are quick links to grab what I mentioned! (It's only .89 cents away from the lowest price ever offered on Amazon and it's the lowest price it's been in 2 years!!).<br />
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Laminator----> <a href="http://amzn.to/2vrnO4F">HERE</a><br />
Laminator sheets----> <a href="http://amzn.to/2gQpkdk">HERE</a><br />
SQUARE snack bags----> <a href="https://www.walmart.com/ip/Great-Value-Zipper-Square-Snack-100-Bags/55126599">HERE</a><br />
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*<span style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "droid sans"; font-size: 13px;"> Please note that this post </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "droid sans"; font-size: 13px;">contains affiliate links. Affiliate links are a win win. They provide a direct link to the products I love, and they help support the blog! Read my disclosures </span><a href="http://www.createprettyblog.com/p/disclosureprivacy.html" style="color: #b1b1b1; font-family: 'droid sans'; font-size: 13px; margin-left: 0px !important; margin-right: 0px !important; text-decoration: none; transition: 0.7s;">here</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "droid sans"; font-size: 13px;">. </span><br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXzHOjth7PFOtktgdT2huhfnhrB361pEZmF6W3uUPTTxBZ04YADVPIpAJ2zV7c-J5KuDAQtfwZ5tVn4KZG6I6V2DAq3QXiENy0sSUF4Nr65u_T8nXn-XlpqalNqyM0Dfhld1znuEG-9Mc/s320/name.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; display: inline !important; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="82" data-original-width="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXzHOjth7PFOtktgdT2huhfnhrB361pEZmF6W3uUPTTxBZ04YADVPIpAJ2zV7c-J5KuDAQtfwZ5tVn4KZG6I6V2DAq3QXiENy0sSUF4Nr65u_T8nXn-XlpqalNqyM0Dfhld1znuEG-9Mc/s320/name.png" /></a><br />
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<br />by Carolinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02516313415450274208noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4295919912453389809.post-86315992739434075062014-09-12T12:23:00.000-04:002014-09-12T12:27:46.430-04:00High Five for Friday!1. Can I tell you that my friends are amazing? A dear friend sent me this gorgeous owl cup for my birthday. A few weeks ago as I was rushing out the door it fell off the coffee maker and broke. I was seriously bummed. I swear my coffee tasted better out of it ;) Well I guess Josh asked her to grab me another (and he'd pay her when we see them again) and guess what showed up a few days later? She wouldn't accept payment- typical.<br />
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2. The kids are growing. I can't believe I have a "toddler" and not a baby. Of course since Emberly still isn't walking she can still be my baby... for now. Since the doctor isn't worried (she she cruises and walks when "she feels like it") I'm not worried either. I'll soak up this baby-ness a little while longer.<br />
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{this pretty much sums him up in a photo}</div>
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{can you even handle those legs?}</div>
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3. We are in the middle of choosing a school for Luke next year. I didn't think I'd be thinking about it this soon, but I am actually glad that we are having these conversations now so we don't have to worry about it. We are leaning toward a private school/homeschool combo. He'd go to Kindergarten 3 days a week and have assignments to do at home the other 2 days. It's an awesome model and it incorporates everything we are looking for in a school. Also the private school chooses curriculum so that burden is off us, but we still have a huge part of "teaching" him. We are filling out the application and gathering necessary documents and leaving the rest up to the Lord.<br />
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4. Fall is in full swing at <a href="https://www.etsy.com/shop/CreatePretty?page=1">Create Pretty</a>! I am LOVING these pumpkin designs! I have even pumped out a few Christmas items already and that makes me super giddy!<br />
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5. We are in the market for a new mattress. We rushed through this decision last time, so we are taking our time to really figure out what we want. Josh has a terrible back with every lumbar disk bulging so it's really up to him. I can sleep anywhere. BTW he had his MRI and got his results last Tuesday. Thankful that the doctor doesn't want to operate but not really sure where else to turn (epidural injections, chiropractor, physical therapy, medicine, etc.). I've been through all this when I was younger, so we're praying for at least a reprieve from pain.by Carolinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02516313415450274208noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4295919912453389809.post-30630180509429518232014-09-06T14:14:00.002-04:002014-09-06T14:24:01.718-04:005 minutes and $3 laterSo I don't think it's any secret how much I love the Dollar Tree. Holla at a Dolla... right?!<br />
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Ok ghetto aside. Underneath my sink was causing me great anxiety. I am pretty tolerant for messes and there are seasons in my life that I actually thrive in disorganization. Gasp.<br />
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Not sure if it's my "creative" side or what, but it's true that when I clean up it's difficult for me to find stuff. It's weird.<br />
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Anyways. Under my sink was simply out of control. It got to the point that I was literally throwing stuff in there. "Hmmm random bag of cotton balls?" *cram*. "Random hair clip?" *throw in the VERY back*<br />
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Here's the before. Taking before photos are a must. It is SO REWARDING to go back and see how it was when you finish. As for this stuff? I use that bottle of lotion every day. And see the contact solution on the floor? Yea it fell out one morning. The pink bag is my "medicine chest". I find it's easier to keep it in a bag like this so I can just grab it when we travel. We HARDLY take medicine but you can bet that whenever we're gone from home my children will come down with whatever illness I don't have meds for. So I bring everything. Besides that everything else is stuff I use randomly, not everyday. Extra contacts, makeup, my other travel bag, etc.<br />
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Everything came out. Everything. And I couldn't get a picture because I was surrounded in it. But it was such a relief. I thew away a lot.<br />
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And I put everything back, organized in these $1 bins from Dollar Tree.<br />
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Ahhhhh can you hear relief?! Everything on the right side was in there before... my extras bin, those birchboxes, and the blue nail polish container I made in middle school along with all the contents in the green bins. They were all hidden under the mess. By the way I save my birchboxes every month, so I've collected quite a few. I organized the kids bathroom with the rest and I'll share that another day.<br />
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But the new containers are PERFECT! I HATE having to pull out bins just to open them. So I love that these are open but still corral everything. Bottom is all my extra contacts and solution, the middle is jewelry cleaners and wax products, and the top is tub stuff (kids shampoo, coconut oil (extra- I keep one on the counter, etc). The lotion stayed front and center because I use that everyday. I love the little nail polish container that I made so it had to stay. It holds my remover, cotton balls, foot scrubs, etc. And behind all that is my medicine bag and travel items. We don't travel a lot so I love that it's there if I need to grab something, but it's out of the way for now!<br />
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And this was everything that came out and didn't come back in! What a great feeling! If you haven't done a 5 minute purge, you should. It's really stress relieving! I actually already tackled our fridge and the kids toys are next!by Carolinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02516313415450274208noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4295919912453389809.post-14452745700834404632014-09-03T15:54:00.001-04:002014-09-03T15:54:44.512-04:00The Current List... I get like this about three times a year... where projects are just swirling around in my head. And it's such a storm of thinking and mulling over ideas and doing the daily stuff and thinking some more that I finally decide I just need to start SOMETHING. Anything.<br />
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Making a list usually helps. I'm not going to set a time limit (although the end of the month would be convenient). But we all know that things come up like stomach viruses (check), rainy weather (check), and everything else that tends to come up and get in the way. So here goes...<br />
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1. I want to start couponing again. I got so frustrated with it. Overwhelmed actually. Now that we are near EVERYTHING, I felt like I was running around like a crazy person every week. And with kids being a crazy person isn't an option. I've done a little "inspirational reading" about couponing methods and I think I'm ready to just shop at select stores. So instead of running around to store after store, I am just going to focus on a few. CVS for the drugstore deals, Target for all their goodies ($3 shirts anyone?!), Publix for my meat (& the penny item every Thursday), and Aldi for everything else. I got so worn out by going from drugstore to drugstore that I honestly don't think I was saving money. So my head is back in the game. And now I have a pile of newspapers with inserts waiting for me to rescue them.<br />
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2. I've officially started the kid's bathroom. And the night I decided I couldn't finish and I'd "just leave the ladder up tonight" my kid threw up all night. Mommy win of the year... "Don't MOVE and sit there under the ladder while you puke." #yesthathappened I probably have another hour of painting left and it will be painted. Then the accessories. Fun.<br />
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3. I want to read a book. All I want is a few hours a night to read. Oh how I miss it. I miss my kindle and I think I've finally come to terms with the fact that it's gone and to save a few bucks I am going to use the app on the iPad. Not quite the same (hello 8 week charge) but it'll do. I have a Jen Hatmaker book at the top of my "read" list.<br />
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4. Organize my sewing space. This space has evolved SO QUICKLY since my shop opened in June. And my lack of organization is really kicking my butt. My fabric/shirts/tools all pretty much have a place but my paperwork is OUT OF CONTROL. Like my tax lady is going to f.r.e.a.k. if I don't get a handle on it. I guess that's a trait of creative people? Being able to make beautiful things in less than stellar spaces.<br />
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5. I have 3 super simple projects I'd love to knock out. One involves a screen and some chicken wire. Another is a hook system for Luke's closet. And another is a lovely saying I want to put over our front door. Our neighborhood is currently building out the rest of the subdivision and they have tons of wood scraps/junk that get thrown in these "trash" bins (they aren't messy trash- but wood scrap trash). One day on a walk Josh actually talked to the builder who was overseeing the work and he checked to see what was actually trash. The guy gave us permission to take whatever we wanted from the "trash" bins and any other scrap lumber less than 4feet long. You realize this makes my creative brain go WILD. So I have been slowly adding to my collection and I think Josh is ready to roll his eyes. So this stuff needs to get DONE before he kicks it to the curb ;)by Carolinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02516313415450274208noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4295919912453389809.post-87579890714122025562014-08-26T19:45:00.001-04:002015-02-27T16:42:55.316-05:00Emberly's Princess Pink Room<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Well this post has been a long time coming....<br />
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Let me just start by saying that I've already "finished" her room <a href="http://www.createprettyblog.com/2013/05/the-final-pre-baby-nursery-post.html">once</a>. Oh, and then we moved. Her room was complete longer before she was born than after. I was just about done 3-4 months before she was born. And she only got to enjoy it for 2.5 months before we moved! Crazy how life happens!<br />
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So when we moved into our new house, it just fell by the wayside. I was really adamant to get <a href="http://www.createprettyblog.com/2014/06/lukes-room-and-accent-wall.html">Luke's room painted</a> immediately. I finished his blue walls and ceiling before the moving truck showed up. Since he's at an age where "consistency is key" and the 5 months before we bought this house was about as inconsistent as it could get, getting those blue walls done was at the top of my list. Like so high up that after we snagged the house keys at closing our first stop was at the paint desk at Home Depot.<br />
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I actually planned to have both their rooms painted that weekend. But it was a lot more work than I originally thought. His room took 2 gallons (I originally bought 1) and I just didn't have enough hours to get her room done.<br />
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So it sat.<br />
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And sat. I started painting her room but then it stalled. And then I'd make it a really high priority- and then I'd stall again. For MONTHS. I would get frustrated because I only had 1 hour blocks of time here and there and there's not much you can get done in an hour.<br />
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This pink is called Powdered Blush by Behr. I LOVE Behr paint and I made a fatal mistake in her old room by going with Sherwin William's paint. You can read that saga <a href="http://www.createprettyblog.com/2013/02/nursery-progress.html" target="_blank">here</a>.<br />
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The gray is Gentle Rain- also by Behr. This is a GREAT gray! To me is doesn't read blue, purple or green- just true gray. </div>
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Then I'd have to clean up and make the room "baby proof" again, only to pull everything out a week later and not get much done again. And then 6 months passed. I finally decided that the thing holding me back was the light. I was SO SICK OF THE BOOB LIGHT in there. It was dark and made the whole space feel tight. On our <a href="http://www.createprettyblog.com/2014/08/sofa-table.html">recent trip to IKEA</a> I decided that enough was enough. Josh and I had agreed on a chandelier and had looked for one second hand. But we never found one under $50 and since IKEA's chandy was $40 we figured there was no reason to buy used if we could get a new one for less. So it was the light that put the fire under me to finish! </div>
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And now that I've rambled on and on...<br />
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Not only was the light holding me back but so were the curtains. Since our ceilings are 9 feet (12 inches higher than our old house) I had some major issues with the length. BUT I actually had never hemmed the curtains from before so I just had to decide what I wanted to do. I do have 1 extra curtain panel (since her old room had 2 windows) but I just couldn't pull the trigger on adding them to the bottom. So a 40% off deal at Hobby Lobby landed this gray fabric in my cart. I didn't want the gray super ruffle-y, but I did want it more ruffle-y than not- if that makes sense. (see the princess in the corner enjoying her room?)<br />
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Also I decided to paint this ceiling pink (like I painted Luke's blue in his room). The rest of the house is a neutral tan and the ceilings are the same color as the walls and I really like how big it makes the spaces feel. In my experience white ceilings (with colored walls) almost put a "cap" on rooms and the same color just makes it feel SO high!<br />
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Next up- the light. I couldn't be happier with it. It gives off the perfect amount of light for this space. I made sure that Josh hung it high enough so he could walk under it without hitting his head. It's simply EXACTLY WHAT I ENVISIONED!<br />
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I love the design it shadows on the ceiling...<br />
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And I covered the cord with some scrap fabric and hot glue. Easy peasy.<br />
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The other wall is a work in progress. I love building collages and I like making them "add-able" so I can slowly add things over time as I see fit.<br />
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The funny thing? I didn't intend for this wall to make "stairs". But it does and I'm kind liking it! I intend to hang something over the pink E but I wanted to wait for something special and it wasn't until I stepped back after it was all hung did I realize it did this. Love it.<br />
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Her changing table wall (which lives between the entrance to her room and the closet) is pretty straightforward. I had some nasty holes to spackle because of a shelf that the previous owners left. Although my "eye" thinks the vinyl should be over the canvas, the practicality of a 15 month of reaching for everything makes it better up there.</div>
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Also I've mentioned before that the cream trim in this house KILLS me. I love bright white trim. But since I just finished painting all our trim in our old house last year I wasn't about to start it again here. Oyyyy. It's really obvious how cream it is next to her white dresser. But the previous owners had this entire house professionally painted before we moved in and it just seems increasingly unnecessary to paint trim that was just painted. In 5 years when it all needs to be touched up, it WILL be white!</div>
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Her toy corner is perfect. Since the kids have a playroom, lots of toys in their room isn't really necessary.<br />
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I love how dark the curtains make the room for naps. That was another thing holding me up. We had blankets held up with thumb tacks for 5 months. But I finally broke down and bought room darkening curtains to hang behind the curtains I made.<br />
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They are tan simply because I couldn't find gray. And whenever we repurpose them I figure they are a good neutral color. I hung them directly behind the curtains on the same clips as the pink/gray curtains. For the most part they are totally concealed. This room gets direct western sun so not only for sunlight were they vital but also to keep the heat out.<br />
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Her crib wall is still plain. I had a lot of nail holes to touch up when we moved her crib to this wall (it had originally been on the collage wall when she didn't sleep at night). Living in a townhouse I wanted her screaming self to be on our bedroom wall and not the neighbors. She's a LOUD crier ;)<br />
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I have a few ideas that I am tossing around... so I will be sure to update when that happens. But I am VERY pleased with the outcome of this space! It's so girly and happy that I just smile when I'm putting her to bed. Of course now that she's actually sleeping at night it's a lot easier to be a peace when putting her to sleep!<br />
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Next up? The kid's bathroom! I promised Josh I wouldn't start another room until this one was finished so I'm excited to get going!by Carolinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02516313415450274208noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4295919912453389809.post-65043641859191957832014-08-22T17:13:00.002-04:002014-08-22T17:13:43.758-04:00High Five for Friday1. I am in the final stages of finishing Emberly's room. Can I get an amen? I will get a post up next week finished or not! I have a few things to hang on the wall...<br />
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2. I took on the position of Elementary Director at our church so blogging has been few and far between lately. I am so blessed by this position and that I am able to work very part time and have my kids with me. So I'm still here and I always have ideas buzzing around in my head. Things are just a bit slower to get done ;)<br />
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3. Luke started school last week. Love that he loves school so much! I tried to work with him this summer with writing his name and he didn't really want anything to do with it so I didn't want to force it. At school they write their name everyday and I am SO proud of the progress he's made. He sat down one night and wrote this note to me unassisted. To say I was teary eyed is a total understatement.<br />
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Emmie had her 15month check up late last week. She did great and even though she's not walking yet (well she's couch cruising). She measured in at the 94% for everything (head, weight and height). She's a whopping 26lbs and my arms hurt.<br />
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4. Now that Emmie's room is painted I've already started planning my next project- the kids' bathroom. Here's sneak peek.<br />
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5. Love that my mom and I have matching vans. Twinsies. ;)<br />
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<br />by Carolinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02516313415450274208noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4295919912453389809.post-51733048313817275142014-08-12T22:07:00.000-04:002014-08-12T22:07:09.620-04:00Sofa Table I mentioned a week or so ago that Josh's dad came into town. He just closed on his new house (YAY!) and needed his sofa table back. He loaned it to us a few years ago (it moved with us from Toccoa) and we knew he'd most likely need it back eventually.<br />
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I always knew that I'd want the IKEA Hemnes sofa table to match our current coffee table when the time came. I also thought that maybe we'd be adventurous and build one. Then I woke up from that dream.<br />
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When his dad called asking for it back and said that he would even come get it (he lives in Mississippi) we were all for it. He then said that as my birthday gift he would replace it for whatever one I wanted. Double score. He told me to peruse Pottery Barn and any other local furniture stores. Although Pottery Barn is lovely I would never pay their prices, even if I could.<br />
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So we planned a day to IKEA. It was a super fun day and we grabbed a few things we needed (some towels for the kids bathroom, a chandelier for Em's room, and a few other odds and ends). I keep a running IKEA list all year and stock up when I go to make it worth the trip. Although we only live about 30 minutes away, it's a serious pain with 2 kids. BUT I must add that we took advantage of their childcare/playground for Luke and I was VERY impressed. He had fun and it was super clean.<br />
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Back to the sofa table. Here is the before:<br />
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I mentioned that I wanted to grab the match to our <a href="http://www.createprettyblog.com/2012/06/ikea-or-bust.html">coffee table</a> so I jumped on pinterest before we left to make sure it was what I wanted. I also took note of the baskets I liked so I could grab those while I was there too.<br />
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Here were a few fun ideas I found:<br />
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The traditional wicker baskets on bottom. No baskets on top. Styled with a lamp and frames. The lamps are a little too symmetrical for me.<br />
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<a href="http://theglitterguide.com/2012/12/11/style-at-home-mary-graf-of-le-cart-sf/">{source}</a></div>
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This one really piqued my curiosity. Love how they made the bottom 4 cubbies into 2. Still wasn't sure about the top cubbies not having storage. Balls and breakable stuff isn't really my jam right now. </div>
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<a href="http://itsgreattobehome.net/2012/03/19/console-table-sofa-table-ikea/">{source}</a></div>
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This gave me a view of what all white would look like. And I decided that for our style (and brown couches) that this wasn't the direction I was headed. </div>
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<a href="http://www.laurieslittlebitsofcreativity.com/2012/08/my-new-ikea-sofa-table.html">{source}</a></div>
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So I kind of merged all these ideas together (doggie legs included):</div>
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The absolute best part? I didn't buy any new baskets. I fully intended when I walked in IKEA that I would walk out with baskets. But as I realized that our coffee table baskets fit in the upper cubbies and that we really didn't use our baskets under the coffee table in our new house I figured it would be the perfect switch. In our old house we had NO place for toy storage in the living room so the baskets had a purpose. Well now we have a playroom so no need for baskets. And I like the open coffee table better.<br />
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And the striped bins were used on top of our desk hutch in <a href="http://www.createprettyblog.com/2013/01/office-overhaul-part-2.html">our old house</a>. </div>
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<span style="text-align: left;">But that's my embroidery desk now so the bins could be repurposed. </span></div>
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As we were assembling the sofa table we purposely left out 2 of the cubbies to create space for these. And we kept the other pieces and screws incase we ever change our mind!</div>
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I dry our cloth diapers in the sun on our back deck (right past this table) so I figured it was the perfect place to display our pretty, yet functional clothes pins in a blue mason jar.<br />
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Overall I'm in love. I'm shocked at how a bigger piece doesn't make the space feel any smaller since it's so bright and white. I am also super proud that we repurposed things we already have. And if I miss the baskets under the coffee table, it's IKEA. I can always grab more. I am SO THANKFUL for this gift and just the fact that Josh's dad thought of me (and let us borrow the old one to begin with)! Yay for happy FREE switch ups!</div>
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by Carolinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02516313415450274208noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4295919912453389809.post-8751305408352533202014-08-01T12:51:00.000-04:002014-08-01T12:56:37.325-04:00It's Friday!I didn't do a Friday post last week so some of these are catching up from the previous week. It has been a CRAZY busy 2 weeks! And honestly I love being busy. I tend to love being home, and being by myself with the kids doesn't bother me. But there are days I feel like we do the same old same old- so it's nice to have a change in routine!<br />
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1. Last Wednesday we made a trip to visit our friends in Athens. It was good for our soul to see them. Holly kept Luke in her home when he was a baby. We lived about 2 miles apart and saw each other constantly so it's been super weird to not have them near-by. Nothing like a "shooting" game to lift everyone's spirit! (Wade is fighting a pretty huge battle right now).<br />
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2. Luke is growing growing growing. He had a checkup so I could get his vaccination records for school (pre-k). I am so thankful he is such a healthy little boy who is so full of life. And if you've spent 10 seconds around him you KNOW he expresses that in his words. He is JUST like his daddy in that he talks to everyone. They should both run for mayor.<br />
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He took a selfie on my phone one night and I found this picture a few days later. He is hilarious.<br />
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The boy still loves his subway so I know that's a special treat I can get that he will love. Subway was the only thing I could eat while I was pregnant with both kids that I knew wouldn't make me sick. It was also the only thing I really craved so it's no surprise that he is obsessed (and sissy really loves it too).<br />
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3. Emberly is growing so fast. She'll be 15months in August and the girl still isn't walking. Can we say princess? She prefers to have her 5'1" mother carry all 26 pounds of her squishy goodness all around. Seriously girl it's getting old. ;) Actually I love that she "needs" me since she's my baby. I know that there won't be anymore for a while so I am soaking this up.<br />
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Her hair is growing in like crazy and we have tried to control her mullet. I am LOVING her ponies!<br />
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4. We also got to hang out with my globe trotting college roommate this month! Britt has been back from Russia this summer and it was great seeing her and Patrick. By the way, I don't think the boy is ever mad. Seriously he has the sweetest smile/cheeks/face ever.<br />
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5. Josh's dad came into town (rather unexpectedly) which was PERFECT since our calendar was wide open this week. He is in the middle of closing on a new house on the Mississippi Gulf Shore. A few years ago he loaned us his sofa table while he wasn't using it. Well he needs it in his new house so he came to grab it (and take me shopping for a new one). I really didn't expect for him to take me shopping, but I had a few sofa tables in mind. There's more to the story and I'll have a separate post for the new one, but we spent the day at Ikea and found something I absolutely love!<br />
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Hard to believe that school is right around the corner... got all Luke's supplies and we are ready to meet his teacher next week. And you can bet you will NOT be finding this cheapskate in any store this tax free weekend!!by Carolinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02516313415450274208noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4295919912453389809.post-10754362236670240872014-07-24T00:01:00.000-04:002015-01-04T22:43:27.274-05:00Let's get it straight...One of the most difficult things to learn about embroidery is how to hoop and how to center a design. It sounds SO EASY but it takes ALOT of practice to get it right. I actually declared on my most read post to date <a href="http://www.createprettyblog.com/2014/02/my-top-ten-tips-for-machine-embroidery.html">{my top 10 tips}</a> that I hate hooping... but guess what? After learning what I'm about to share, hooping is NOW my most preferred method! Oh the irony.<br />
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I'm going to show how to center a design (including rehooping) and then I'll show examples of how this doesn't always work. If you are reading this and are pretty well read in embroidery then you know the term "hooping" vs. "floating". I started out by hooping everything, but slowly got frustrated because I would pull the shirt too tight and it would cause puckering and small holes. Hooping is quite simply hooping the stabilizer (I prefer precut medium cutaway squares/rectangles for knit shirts) and the shirt all in one step. I ventured into floating and SWORE by it for a few years. Floating is when you hoop your stabilizer and lay the shirt (or whatever your embroidering) on top of the hoop/stabilizer. You HAVE to attach the garment (either with basting spray, a basting stitch, or pins). I stuck with this method even though it was a pain because it gave me the results I wanted. But about 1 in 5 or so items weren't straight. And I didn't know until I pulled it off the hoop (aka when the project was done) and it was incredibly frustrating. So I went back to hooping because not only did I learn HOW to hoop but I am now getting the results I want. </div>
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So here's my very unprofessional version of hooping AND getting it straight without holes or puckering!</div>
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Fold the item in half. I prefer NOT to measure because measurements are different at different areas. Also the tag can be put in crooked or off center, so if you center it to the tag it may be off. I like finding the middle by physically folding the shirt and matching the shoulder seams together.<br />
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When it's folded I mark 3 small lines down the middle. Think middle school geometry. Then I connect the lines with a ruler and draw 1 long line down the front center. Oh and did I mention it's REALLY important to get the right marking pen? I have had this baby since I started (4 years ago) and it's still going strong! I found it at Joanns and it has worked perfectly. It comes out of the fabric with a couple squirts of water.<br />
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After drawing my 1st line down the center, I line up the ruler and draw 1-2 lines to the left of the center line and 1-2 lines to the right. Like this:<br />
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Pretty straightforward right? (punny- I know I can't help it)<br />
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Then I have an unwritten rule that I start the appliqué about 1.5 inches down from the neck. If it's a really big shirt (5T+) I'll start is about 2 inches down. I measure and make a mark at the place I want the appliqué to start. Then I make straight lines with my ruler down. I kind of eyeball it against the neck to check for straightness. I usually go 4-5 lines down.<br />
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Then I put my hoop in. The bottom part of the hoop goes inside the shirt with the stabilizer. I ALWAYS use my grid. Always. No exceptions. </div>
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I line the center line of the grid up with the center line I drew. I line the top of the purple grid with the top line I drew. Then I pop the hoop together. </div>
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PSA: See how the purple line on the grid DOESN'T match with the hoop? You CANNOT go by the marking on the hoop or it won't be centered! Always use the grid (is the horse dead?). Neigh.</div>
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Pretty simple right? I use this technique on every shirt. Of course now that I have it down it only takes about a minute to get it all marked and hooped. For productivity reasons I usually always have my next 2 projects hooped while my machine is running. I love being able to pop one project off and start the next. </div>
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Now what about a name? I was excited about getting my bigger machine to be able to embroider a larger area. But I've found that I run into the same issue as I did with my smaller machine. If I use a 5x7 design I still usually don't have the space to add a name. About 50% of the time I get lucky and it works in one hooping. But sometimes it doesn't. So here's how to handle that. (I do have the monster 5x12 positional hoop- but many times it's just too large).</div>
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Here's an applique I recently did. The minnie head fit in my vertical hoop, but the name "Savannah" didn't- I needed my hoop flipped to 7inches. But the minnie head wouldn't fit horizontally. I was doing 2 identical shirts and one fit in just one hooping and the other didn't so I had to do my best to get the Savannah shirt to match this Maci shirt:</div>
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<a href="https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3875/14705206192_6c3d587e4d_o.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3875/14705206192_6c3d587e4d_o.jpg" width="480" /></a></div>
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See how I still have my markings intact from the appliqué? (you can even see my "hoop burn" from the first hooping). That mark comes out with a squirt of water- no worries. </div>
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<a href="https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5584/14705504235_231f2513c6_o.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5584/14705504235_231f2513c6_o.jpg" width="480" /></a></div>
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Once again I marked where the top of the name needed to go. That tells me where the top of my grid will go. </div>
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I needed the name to start about half an inch down, so I made my mark and lined up my grid:</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinSM-ySGz72i4wTCGaAG0Gow-Q-Ky2JkNY1TlWjMMqIm-zAG8KoWDioLMXDUcjcEukbdGtE73M7v2gD_2aqOVaEUpIksk56B6VHBJaJIvM1-Zr9VgFNzcxkWQEc7VwXXNxv-Ds6zk9DnM/s1600/14725367763_2eb06448ca_o.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinSM-ySGz72i4wTCGaAG0Gow-Q-Ky2JkNY1TlWjMMqIm-zAG8KoWDioLMXDUcjcEukbdGtE73M7v2gD_2aqOVaEUpIksk56B6VHBJaJIvM1-Zr9VgFNzcxkWQEc7VwXXNxv-Ds6zk9DnM/s1600/14725367763_2eb06448ca_o.jpg" height="640" width="480" /></a></div>
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Probably the MOST IMPORTANT STEP of this whole process is making sure that your design is actually at the top of the grid!!! This goes for the first appliqué too! So in my program after merging all the letters I moved it to the top. </div>
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I use Sew What Pro as my program simply because it's what I started with. It does everything I need it to do and I have learned it pretty well. There are other programs that offer other things, but I'm too scared to switch now for the learning curve! Oh and to make life a WHOLE LOT EASIER- join your stitches so it will stitch out the whole name without stopping- not letter by letter. </div>
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Once it was done stitching I checked to make sure that the name was about half an inch under the appliqué- Bingo!</div>
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<a href="https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3876/14703099054_716d0179f4_o.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3876/14703099054_716d0179f4_o.jpg" width="480" /></a></div>
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And the finished product:</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBNSebDqI_Us_oh1eO4vM1RJOI-jIvkbHSxHprBJZhPwQc8i0HOrOXGhRwDmMi9JJ4lQubT6xvBItKz2NMo9veUeYO7WcVB89FWYkInmO0WzLF4z_lZZvl5aOy6qLphBItgGIJyWd7FWU/s1600/Screen+Shot+2014-07-23+at+10.43.56+AM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBNSebDqI_Us_oh1eO4vM1RJOI-jIvkbHSxHprBJZhPwQc8i0HOrOXGhRwDmMi9JJ4lQubT6xvBItKz2NMo9veUeYO7WcVB89FWYkInmO0WzLF4z_lZZvl5aOy6qLphBItgGIJyWd7FWU/s1600/Screen+Shot+2014-07-23+at+10.43.56+AM.png" height="430" width="640" /></a></div>
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As an example of how our eyes can play tricks on us: Visually, the Savannah looks farther down on the shirt. But it's not because the M is closer to the center and therefore APPEARS closer to the appliqué. I measured 3 times after pulling it off the hoop to double and triple check! </div>
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A quick tip I learned is to always center the second center hooping to the first hooping (by extending the marking lines down). If you recenter the name to the shirt it MAY be off since the measurements down the shirt differ. It shouldn't make a difference but I did a shirt once where I centered the appliqué to the shirt and then centered the name to the shirt and the name wasn't centered on the design. It was incredibly frustrating! So I always center the name to the design!</div>
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Here's another example of how our eyes play tricks:</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuDZjtAjMVf9y_B1yYFD4oVDyuWUHp1Lcg2Fe5QXZoqklnH_DM6omF-URBE1f4aQ7qRVxEm_Li45EsnTGrl2BbglGZPKTxRSmFCrhcGr8b0W1wGNbEsoqfK7_WVSCBfN0QPjVjCvNkeWg/s1600/Screen+Shot+2014-07-23+at+10.49.28+AM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuDZjtAjMVf9y_B1yYFD4oVDyuWUHp1Lcg2Fe5QXZoqklnH_DM6omF-URBE1f4aQ7qRVxEm_Li45EsnTGrl2BbglGZPKTxRSmFCrhcGr8b0W1wGNbEsoqfK7_WVSCBfN0QPjVjCvNkeWg/s1600/Screen+Shot+2014-07-23+at+10.49.28+AM.png" height="480" width="640" /></a></div>
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This name is clearly centered to the elephant. The L comes right below the tail and the M is right under the trunk, but the name looks slightly off center because the truck is so large and the tail is so skinny. I didn't have to rehoop this one so I am POSITIVE this is centered (it was centered in my program) but at quick glance it looks "heavy" on the right and light on the left. </div>
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See this start shirt. It's nearly symmetrical so the name looks perfectly centered:</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZZQbRYotUmbmHrfqg9Kh1_qiInInp1Xsbpq82zud7pDxgl-5Jozs0dcmdrVrwoy7oAdvfgJ23wM3UtAIyeWEd0QdFvGoCNH2krsUNU59mLpJeqyDTIw4sBAZCkxj4DfZNFYXdI1A38Xg/s1600/Screen+Shot+2014-07-23+at+10.51.57+AM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZZQbRYotUmbmHrfqg9Kh1_qiInInp1Xsbpq82zud7pDxgl-5Jozs0dcmdrVrwoy7oAdvfgJ23wM3UtAIyeWEd0QdFvGoCNH2krsUNU59mLpJeqyDTIw4sBAZCkxj4DfZNFYXdI1A38Xg/s1600/Screen+Shot+2014-07-23+at+10.51.57+AM.png" height="506" width="640" /></a></div>
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Another great example: </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWZjLHb9Oep_Pf0zIzDGCVYFSW9r3cEdfU2a_KKu0cJjiOyVngjToyuXr6DFgmsCxikpcmTdj5u4eFohKSti7atofVC9N8ZLCdWzQj9iZY6frq6YONNYtspsnfCUjh3I70BL3XypQTc7k/s1600/Screen+Shot+2014-07-23+at+10.53.23+AM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWZjLHb9Oep_Pf0zIzDGCVYFSW9r3cEdfU2a_KKu0cJjiOyVngjToyuXr6DFgmsCxikpcmTdj5u4eFohKSti7atofVC9N8ZLCdWzQj9iZY6frq6YONNYtspsnfCUjh3I70BL3XypQTc7k/s1600/Screen+Shot+2014-07-23+at+10.53.23+AM.png" height="452" width="640" /></a></div>
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This bird drives me NUTS because the feet are off center. But according to the design the J is under the beak and the e is under the tail. And if I centered the name to the legs it would be even more off! Haha!</div>
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So just a glimpse into the many decisions we as embroiderers have to make! I really think I have arguments with myself back and forth before finally settling on a design. And 99% of the time I center it to design (not to a portion of the design like the feet). Thankfully our computers are awesome in showing us what it will look like before it's done so I can visualize it! Isn't it crazy the number of steps that goes into simply hooping a shirt?!</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiV7dNL2yEdwOOMgco-uTbyqUvnYYxrZ3rXzB00HkeOmQnTK8PEctsqYrh8NGMO0uM_7Qo2JeBL29vt-YmA6vXVVQnUBNhSsYJ9Mk7SZtT8JRHzMhhTcx8YezRrwWFXf4c6LBOUH428oYQ/s1600/name.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiV7dNL2yEdwOOMgco-uTbyqUvnYYxrZ3rXzB00HkeOmQnTK8PEctsqYrh8NGMO0uM_7Qo2JeBL29vt-YmA6vXVVQnUBNhSsYJ9Mk7SZtT8JRHzMhhTcx8YezRrwWFXf4c6LBOUH428oYQ/s1600/name.png" height="82" width="320" /></a></div>
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by Carolinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02516313415450274208noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4295919912453389809.post-26721930762986442072014-07-18T10:44:00.002-04:002014-07-18T10:46:10.810-04:00H54F!I haven't updated in 2 weeks! These 2 weeks have been full so It's going to be hard to pick just 5 things.<br />
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1. Last week Luke flushed his undies down the toilet. To say I was mad is a total understatement. I sent him to his room because I needed time to cool down. Had to decide whether to call a plumber or "let it go". Conceal, don't feel right? ;) I emailed Josh at work so he had a heads up and I didn't flush the toilet until I talked to him. Although I'm sure I can handle a toilet overflowing, I didn't really have the patience to deal with it. The good thing? It's been almost 2 weeks of normal use and we haven't had an issue. Thankfully. He learned a lesson and I learned a lesson. I told him he was no longer allowed to flush. Well his bathroom went WAY TOO LONG without being flushed and I legit couldn't be mad him. Lol. So we are back to normal bathroom practices. No more undie flushing!<br />
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2. My van had it's 3rd flat tire in 5 months. The second in a week. I was annoyed. We had just spent $180 to get a new tire due to sidewall damage the week before. Thankfully I think this was just neglect and needed a little air. After examining it and not finding any damage we filled her up with air and so far she's been good. So thankful for the tire notification dingy bell that alerts me of a flat!<br />
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3. A week ago we had our 10 year high school reunion. It was great to see everyone and it's hard to believe that in 10 years Luke will be 14! Talk about a slap in the face. Luke took a pretty nasty fall at the kiddie pool where we met and when the life guard started talking ambulance and concussion I kinda freaked (of course Josh had left for work 5 minutes before the fall). But he ended up being fine. I watched for signs all afternoon and besides a pretty nasty bump on his head he was good a new.<br />
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4. Luke has been attending VBS all week. We registered him at the church where he'll attend preschool this year hoping to get him familiar with some of the kids and surroundings. He has LOVED it and it makes me excited for preschool for him. He needs to be doing something CONSTANTLY so this will be good for him. He hasn't been too thrilled about dressing up as certain things (he's just like his momma), but it has been such a blessing for him to memorize his verses and want to bring in offering. :)<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKYA6aCx4l6HEiUJVKrEAwrYt_E6GUFKFIHGLbbwfz7sH_Y7nDZQkyPbE-XiEuugHR_wuFIuS_FpOOAZ2nxyfthGz5Mo5vwt8wzC-wFRNJ6qhxTZxsL0WvW2SsG3C6YYUiaBlXMgMRg-8/s1600/14683806815_998a6ab513_o.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKYA6aCx4l6HEiUJVKrEAwrYt_E6GUFKFIHGLbbwfz7sH_Y7nDZQkyPbE-XiEuugHR_wuFIuS_FpOOAZ2nxyfthGz5Mo5vwt8wzC-wFRNJ6qhxTZxsL0WvW2SsG3C6YYUiaBlXMgMRg-8/s1600/14683806815_998a6ab513_o.jpg" height="400" width="300" /></a></div>
5. I now have 48 items listed on Etsy! I can't wait to break 50 and I have them ready to go but haven't gotten the go ahead from the designers I test for. By the way- I love the testing world! It's the kind of thing that I can do as little or as much as I want. Any design I test I receive for free with the promise of sending a good quality photo. It's a win win! I am gearing up for fall and even *gasp* CHRISTMAS! I have 2 Christmas kitchen towels listed in my shop! Always thinking a season ahead!by Carolinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02516313415450274208noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4295919912453389809.post-25467782737442802992014-07-10T00:01:00.000-04:002014-07-10T00:01:00.341-04:00The Sandbox Turtle What says childhood better than a turtle sandbox?! It's like the second I had kids I needed one of these.<br />
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<a href="https://farm3.staticflickr.com/2934/14414642610_cc5b32152d_o.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="426" src="https://farm3.staticflickr.com/2934/14414642610_cc5b32152d_o.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
I kept my eyes out for a while on second hand yard sale sites. I took a break last summer since I knew we were moving and it would be a pain to store- but once we were settled I resumed the search. I actually posted in the "want to buy" section that I was looking for one and someone contacted me with exactly what we needed! The little green turtle!<br />
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It was in perfect condition and just needed a little dusting off.<br />
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What I didn't expect was the search for sand to be such a pain. Have you read about <a href="http://www.sheknows.com/parenting/articles/966411/is-your-sand-box-sand-safe">play sand recently</a>?<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_1GVcCyMW-_xKtZ3cj5cbz0z4kmPeG50jvZBiRqmAUAM6UCdke8WUG8ytZR8EYFNFqIH_8XtRwyy8CyxAEn-IcU_bNELPrrXGvMcO7Fk4wWUjIza4z4_hssQyAk-1pQt86IqC8eieOic/s320/dino+stone+3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_1GVcCyMW-_xKtZ3cj5cbz0z4kmPeG50jvZBiRqmAUAM6UCdke8WUG8ytZR8EYFNFqIH_8XtRwyy8CyxAEn-IcU_bNELPrrXGvMcO7Fk4wWUjIza4z4_hssQyAk-1pQt86IqC8eieOic/s320/dino+stone+3.jpg" height="300" width="400" /></a></div>
Apparently there is a warning on the bags of play sand that the airborne dust particles can carry carcinogens which can cause lung cancer... ummm last I checked I try to avoid carcinogens and lung cancer. And protect my kids from them. and for that to be in PLAY SAND? Intended for use in children's play areas?! That's terrifying. Of course I can't protect them from everything. But from the things I can protect them from- I will.<br />
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So my idea shifted to plan B. There HAS to be safe sand right? Not all sand contains calcium sulfate. A quick search on amazon brought up this sand:<br />
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<a href="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/411GcgnSb9L._SX466_.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/411GcgnSb9L._SX466_.jpg" height="542" width="640" /></a></div>
It claims to be free of silica and all the other "bad stuff" that's in typical play sand. But At $30 for 25lbs I read somewhere that I'd need about 3 bags to fill the turtle. And after having saved so much on the turtle I didn't want to blow it on $90 worth of sand.<br />
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Another sand alternative is to buy river sand which comes literally from the ground. It's typically quartz I believe and although it can still create dust, it's not as bad as the manufactured stuff. But we don't have a truck and I couldn't imagine getting a delivery to our deck- that 2 stories high. So sand was officially scratched from our list.<br />
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We also questioned whether sand would be good since our AC until is below our deck and also our driveway. We worried that a lot of sand would be lost by being thrown down.<br />
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There's good news! There are some alternatives to sand. A few I found are:<br />
1. pebbles. Kids can still fill cups and dump trucks with them. Again being over the AC until and living VERY close to neighbors (and drive by cars) we just didn't think pebbles were a great idea.<br />
2. rice. Another good idea. But I saw that getting costly too. Plus isn't that bad for birds? Plus if it gets wet I worried about it rotting.<br />
3. corn. Again I worried about rotting.<br />
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And those were pretty much the alternatives I found. Womp. So as I was sitting <a href="http://www.createprettyblog.com/2014/07/the-deck-paint-and-progress.html">enjoying our patio furniture</a> I tried thinking of ideas. Heck, my kids enjoyed playing in it empty! I also thought to maybe just fill it with water and let them go for it.<br />
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It suddenly hit me- what about a ball pit? Remember those? And ewwwww the ones at Mc. Donalds where kids probably used the bathroom in- remember the smell? #itdidntgrossmeoutthen<br />
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But balls were out because, again, I could see my kids finding great joy in throwing them at neighbors passing by. So I decided to grab some pool noodles.<br />
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I thought they would probably be fun to stack, and hide under. And at $1 a pop they were super inexpensive. I started with 4 and that clearly wasn't enough.<br />
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So why that size? I'm so glad you asked. Although they can fall off the deck because they aren't wide enough- I wanted to make them tall enough to not fall down. If it doesn't seem to be an issue I may cut them even smaller. But I wanted to see how this went first. So far the kids LOVE it.<br />
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By the way they are super easy to cut. Luke snuck out of bed one night and watched me and I heard him crying inside. When I asked what was wrong he said he was sad that I was cutting up his pool noodles. I assured him that I had bought more and his were still down in the garage. I guess the punishment for being out of bed was watching his beloved noodles die a slow painful death by stabbing and slicing.<br />
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I ended up buying 4 more to fill the pool out. So $8 total was the cost (after the $15 for the turtle). Not a shabby "sandbox" for under $25!<br />
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We did make sure that the sandbox is against the house, not the railings. Wouldn't want to tempt my little people too much. Plus since they're not round if one does get loose it's not going to roll down the street into the sewer or anything crazy. I'm sure Luke will feel like a big helper going to retrieve them!<br />
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I feel like my life is complete now that this sandbox has a purpose!<br />
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<br />by Carolinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02516313415450274208noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4295919912453389809.post-21135686223036439802014-07-08T16:28:00.001-04:002014-07-08T16:28:03.534-04:00The Deck: Paint and ProgressHaving some sort of deck was on our shortlist when we purchased our home. We enjoyed our last deck so much (<a href="http://www.createprettyblog.com/2012/02/spooky.html">and then tore it apart and had it rebuilt</a>) and tend to spend a lot of time outdoors with the kiddos when we have somewhere to sit.<br />
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Almost every house we looked at had a deck. And some were in pretty pitiful shape. I guess it's just destined to happen when wood is left exposed to the elements. But decks are expensive!</div>
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When we first laid eyes on our house we weren't sure how a deck would work since the garage was around back. But when we walked through and realized that the house was actually 3 stories- it totally made sense.</div>
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One of the first things we noticed was that the deck was in pretty rough shape. This house is approximately 7 years old, and I think that's the last time the deck was painted. Thankfully since it's a story off the ground it's supported by metal beams that are secured in concrete.<br />
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Since this is a townhouse with an HOA we were told at closing that they were actually going to refinish the deck for us- wow really?! </div>
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Well we closed in the middle of December and January 1st we received a memo from the HOA that all doors, windows, and decks were being turned over to the homeowners. Just our luck right? They still take care of anything siding and roof related. But it was kind of a bummer realizing that we'd have to take care of it. But it's not really THAT big and a generous neighbor passed down his paint when he finished his- so we got 1/2 a can of paint out of it. We did have to purchase more since 1 gallon wasn't enough- but I didn't even know how to match the paint color- so the hand me down paint was actually a blessing. </div>
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It seems like we're always working outside in the middle of the summer. I guess it's how we roll- speaking of rolling this was a pretty straightforward process. We pressure washed first (and used some dawn for extra cleaning), waited for it to dry, then sanded, and finally painted (with a brush and roller). </div>
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Some of the boards had wide cracks so we wanted to really push the paint into the cracks. Then a roller made everything smooth. Not sure why I keep saying WE. I didn't lift a finger painting. Figured I needed to say that in case hubs is reading.<br />
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Disclaimer? We didn't do the rails and posts. This weather has been CRAY this year! I mean suddenly we live in the tropics and get a rain storm every afternoon. So we had to work around that. Oh and Josh's work schedule. And life with 2 crazy babes. </div>
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I do plan to go back and do the rails slowly. Someday.<br />
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Pressure washing took 1 day. Sanding took another. And then painting took 2 days. We didn't do 2 thin coats (like usual) but opted for one thick coat which took a little longer. </div>
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All our deck stuff lived inside (including our grill in our living room) while the painting took place and we lived in chaos for a few days. As soon as it was dry everything went back out. Ironically the same weekend Target had 50% off all their patio furniture. I scouted everything out one day- took an unnatural number of pictures and made note of prices. I brought all my research home and we hashed out what we actually wanted/needed. </div>
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We actually have a patio set at our old house but we left it for our tenants to use (and wrote it in the lease). We were planning to get it after a year, but realized mid December that we had no way to transport it and it wasn't really worth the trouble to bring it here. So we'll be leaving it. Once we figured this out we felt comfortable moving forward with the 50% off sale. </div>
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We visualized a little seating area and then a smallish table with enough chairs for us. When I did my "research" trip I found the perfect loveseat that would fill the space. Josh and I typically try to consult each other on purchases more than $100 so I felt like we really needed to talk before I pulled the trigger. This was 6pm on a Friday night. </div>
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We discussed everything and I made my list and got out early Saturday morning. Would you believe that someone else swiped the ONLY loveseat there? I was floored. I put on my game face and kept going. I ended up finding a seating situation that fit the bill. It was a little more than the original plan, but in the end I think I really like the 2 separate chairs. I think the loveseat would have felt... awkward especially if you're sitting next to someone who isn't your husband. </div>
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I loaded up 2 carts, and with the help of a nice associate got it all paid for and loaded. </div>
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Our deck today looks a little something like this-<br />
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This is the far corner to the right of the door.<br />
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The side of our house is yellow and our grill is red- so I wanted a nice neutral compromise. I would love to find some throw pillows that incorporate the yellow, red, navy and possibly aqua blue to tie it all together.<br />
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Because this side of the house gets direct western sun, it's gorgeous out here in the morning and for lunch- but by dinner it's pretty hot. We'll eventually get an umbrella. Just want to find a large one that's pretty sturdy and has good reviews. Now THAT'S hard to come by!</div>
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This kind of gives you a better idea of how small this space actually is. The table does have 4 chairs that will live out here, but while we wait for the rest of our indoor handmade farmhouse bench to be made they are filling a need inside. </div>
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And I have another post in the hopper about what's inside Mr. Turtle. It's a mess free, practically germ free, and cheap alternative to a sand box. </div>
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On the other side of the deck is the grill and my green bean garden. Seriously don't be hatin'. We lived in a house with half and acre and I never grew ANYTHING. We now live in a town house without a yard and I'm obsessed with gardening. Go figure. And it's practically the only thing that I can keep alive (besides my kids of course). </div>
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We love sitting out here and sipping coffee in the morning. </div>
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By the way- am I the only one or do you ever feel like waiting for a sale is like gambling? I was SOLD on an outdoor rug. But it was the only thing in the patio section that wasn't on sale. So I bought it. But I questioned myself over and over "will it go on sale?" "what if it ends up being $15 instead of $30?" And I have this debate in my head in the store. I usually try to think what I would feel if I let it go and would I be disappointed trying to find another or is this one perfect? Ultimately I decided to buy it. I did leave the tags on for a week just in case, but I checked back a few days ago and 3 weeks later and it's still full price. And there was only 1 left. So I say it was well worth the purchase!</div>
by Carolinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02516313415450274208noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4295919912453389809.post-80270362568874073972014-06-30T00:01:00.000-04:002014-06-30T00:01:00.548-04:00Let's talk choresI am amazed by how much my little man grows everyday. He has been such a joy to raise, even in the difficult times. As I witness this amazing growth (both mentally and physically), I am constantly looking for ways to challenge him. Not only does he get bored easily, he LOVES being hands on. He wants to help whenever he can and he always wants to be in right in the middle of the action.<br />
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My husband and I determined that he was plenty old enough to start doing chores. Why not use his genuine curiosity to help with the function of our home? He's a member of the house and he is old enough to help it run smoothly.<br />
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So without further ado, he's what he does. He turned 4 in December.<br />
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1. Puts away his laundry.<br />
While I sit in the middle of the hallway in the middle of a huge pile of laundry I make a pile for each member of the family. At this stage it's easy (baby girl clothes, boy clothes, husband clothes, my clothes, and house linens). As I sit there I make sure to do Luke's first. I fold his underwear, pjs, pants and match his socks. Then he comes and takes the piles to their respective locations. His dresser is in the closet and he knows what goes in each drawer. I put the hanging stuff in a separate pile and I do that later. It saves me about 10 minutes lugging stuff to his room and then putting it away. He loves this. And I love that he's REALLY helping.<br />
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2. Sorts the utensil drawer.<br />
Everytime I unload the dishwasher I make him a nice pile of little forks, big forks, spoons, not sharp knives, and baby utensils. They are in a huge pile and he stands at the silverware drawer and sorts them. Oh and of course I make him wash his hands before! He LOVES it when dishes are clean. He LOVES when I unload the dishwasher because it's something that he can do, and it's something he does well. There are times I've caught him using a fork to flick a ball around the living room, but he's 4. He's going to get distracted. And you can be assured those forks end up back in the sink.<br />
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3. Picking up toys. Oh for the love of everything holy, please do not pick up your child's toys! He has been doing this for over 2 years. It doesn't hurt that he has his father's OCD clean genes. He loves when things look clean. Every night before bed his toys must be picked up and put away in the correct place. Of course if he's working on something (Lincoln Log village or his train tracks) he can leave those out. But little pieces of things that don't go to anything get put away. Food from their kitchen gets put away. And anything that doesn't get picked up goes in time out for the next day. Of course there have been nights where fits have been thrown. Other nights we get home late. I have to make it a priority that I help remind him before he gets overtired. I want to set him up to be successful. We try to have everything picked up BEFORE dinner. Then after dinner we snuggle, read, occasionally watch TV and take baths. If we wait until 8pm to start picking up it usually ends in a disastrous screaming, crying, toy throwing event. And do the piles get picked up EVERY night? No. But I'd say 5 of 7 nights they do. Not too bad.<br />
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4. Setting the table.<br />
When I cook, I usually go ahead and fill the plates before they are on the table. I've found that we dirty more dishes when I bring a bowl of green beans to the table. Why not serve straight out of the stove pot? This makes an assembly line on the counters and typically once plates are filled I like to get them on the table. I usually call Luke in and have him take plates to the table. Has he ever dropped one? No. Will he? Most likely. It'll be ok. In the time when I don't have anything for him to carry he sets out the utensils and napkins and carries condiments to the table. I like knowing that when we sit down to dinner that we all had a hand in making dinner a success.<br />
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5. Feed the dog. As much as I've tried to ban him from opening doors, he has figured out how to get around the child locks. He hits them with his fist and they pop off the doorknobs into 2 pieces. SO I put his genius to work. Now that he can open the back door his morning chore is to feed Sadie. He gets her cup, pulls the top off the big galvanized can, digs it in and pours it in her bowl. He loves this. Also since he can reach the water dispenser in the fridge I let him fill her water bowl. I'm sure there will be accidents, but NOTHING teaches him as much responsibility than to care for other members of our family. He did leave the top off of Sadie's food the other day and it rained but he learned a valuable lesson!<br />
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6. Take down recycling. We try our best to recycle paper, cardboard, glass, and plastic. Back when we didn't pay for trash pickup and we could drop it free we only had about 1 bag a week since paper, cardboard, plastic and glass took up SO MUCH SPACE in the trash. By streamlining our garbage it was amazing to see how quick we as Americans are to throw stuff away. Now that we have trash pickup at home, we still only have about 3 bags a week (and that includes my sewing trash, some diapers- we do cloth diaper about 80% of the time, and regular household trash). We keep a small container right next to our trash and when it's full Luke takes it down stairs to sort. We have 2 white containers for paper and plastic and then 2 smaller black containers for cardboard and glass. Cardboard usually takes the most space so we sometimes end up stacking it on top if it gets out of control. When those containers are full we lug it all to our local recycling bins in town. My point in telling you this? Luke empties the white container whenever it's full. He takes it down to the garage and sorts it in the correct pile because we've taught him where it goes.<br />
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I love to challenging him with chores. He's not allowed to say I can't. And he can't pull the "PLEASSSSE help me clean my mess" gig. I nipped that a long time ago. I also like to give him chores that I have to teach him how to do. He goes from having no idea how to do something to being completely proud of himself for finishing the task. It's an amazing morale booster.<br />
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And I can promise you this. After teaching nearly 500 10 year olds over the course of 5 years I know that not every child is made to do chores. And you can tell the chore-ers from the non-chore-ers. :)<br />
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I taught kids that wanted me to do everything for them (I'm not talking helping them with work- I'm talking about picking up pencils, jackets, and cups for them off the floor). Good thing for 2 of those years I was very pregnant and couldn't bend over anyways. I remember quite a few times the phrase "I'm not your momma and I'm definitely not your maid" slipping out of my mouth. This is a life skill that will benefit them all throughout life!<br />
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I'm also looking to add more as he gets older like dusting the baseboards (which he can probably already do), putting the vacuum away, cleaning his bathroom counter, etc. But for now I am very proud of what he does to help!by Carolinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02516313415450274208noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4295919912453389809.post-35389363510883115172014-06-27T08:17:00.000-04:002014-06-27T08:17:01.983-04:00H54F!High Five for Friday!<br />
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1. WHERE did this week go? I feel like I say that every week, but we just live such an odd schedule/life that it's always either becoming a weekend or ending a weekend, so I feel like I'm always goinggggggg! Josh is off Tuesday/Wednesday for now so while everyone is gearing up for the week (Monday)- that's my Friday. And when he goes back to work Thursday everyone is getting ready for the weekend (which is really my "mid week". It's crazy and a total brain teaser!<br />
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2. We repainted and furnished our deck this week! It was a blast (well Josh did the painting so I'll let him have the last word about that). Can't wait to share details!<br />
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3. My son brought me 18 flowers to my bedside one morning after he took the dog out with daddy. "EIGHTEEN to be exact, mom!" </div>
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And my daughter learned how to make a duck face way too early!<br />
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4. We had our master closet redone by California Closets. It was one of the best home improvement decisions we've ever made! I'll have a post with the details later!<br />
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5. Luke is getting to the point where he LOVES games. Candyland was his choice this week. I totally dominated (but we're trying to teach him how to win with humility- so I had to tone down my excitement). We're really competitive.<br />
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by Carolinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02516313415450274208noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4295919912453389809.post-69087731052946543912014-06-18T09:30:00.000-04:002014-06-18T09:31:53.168-04:00Watermark Part 2- Watermark It ProI left off talking about watermarks <a href="http://www.createprettyblog.com/2014/06/how-to-create-watermark.html">here</a>. I had created a watermark in picmonkey, saved my file, and was able to use it over and over on my computer for photos I upload from my camera. The only problem? About 40% of what I post is from my phone.<br />
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I needed a way to do the exact same thing, only from my iPhone. By the way we are almost completely an apple family so I don't speak any other language. Not sure about other phones/ways to do this.<br />
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I used the exact same file as I saved before with the transparent background and I attached it in an email and sent it to myself so I could pull up the image in my phone.<br />
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Once it came through I held my finger on the picture until this screen popped up. Since the writing is so light it actually looked like a blank page, but there was a picture there!<br />
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Next I downloaded the app Watermark It Pro.<br />
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The app was $1.99. I usually never spend money on apps, but I tried the free version and it wouldn't allow me to upload my own photo. So in the end the $1.99 was money well spent.<br />
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When you open the app this is what will appear:<br />
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Click "choose photo" and click the picture from your camera roll that you want watermarked. On the bottom left there is a place that says "images".<br />
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This screen will pop up with a bunch of pre made watermarks.<br />
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Scroll to the bottom and there is a blank album that you can add and save you image to. In my app the folder is the "images inside" with the "2" bubble on the bottom right. Click on that album.<br />
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Click add new image to folder<br />
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and choose the watermark from your camera roll. I think because the image has a transparent background my phone freaked a little and the thumbnail is not the same as the actually picture (weird)- it actually looked like a screen shot I took a while ago with some fonts I wanted. Crazy.<br />
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But when I chose it a screen popped up "image saved successfully". Then you can click "use existing image in folder" and it will be saved there.<br />
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I actually made 2 watermarks- one for lighter pictures (that has darker letters) and one for darker pictures (that has lighter letters).<br />
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Click on the watermark and it will add it to your photo (It'll be really small at first- use 2 fingers to make it bigger and place it where you want it to be).<br />
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Then click next and it will "fade" to be how you made it in pic monkey.<br />
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Then click finish and save it where you want it. I save the newly watermarked photos right in my camera roll and then go back and pull them whenever I need to add something to my page. I haven't synced my flickr account yet, but this will help with my blog photos since I use flickr to upload all those.<br />
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Again, the first time you do it, it may feel complicated because you are having to import the watermark first. BUT after you do that the first time, it's easy after because the image is already there. When you go back after the image is saved you open the program>choose the photo to be watermarked>click images>click your watermark>make it bigger> save! Done.<br />
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There has been major drama on some of the embroidery boards I'm on with stolen pictures and people posting other's work to their own page and passing it as their work. Figured this post was timely considering how crazy some people are!by Carolinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02516313415450274208noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4295919912453389809.post-82003084033399837132014-06-16T11:28:00.004-04:002014-06-16T11:28:57.817-04:00License Plate Wall It's amazing what things inspire me. I love looking for unique quirky things to decorate with. Remember my wedding card collage? Currently I'm collecting all my thread scraps to display in a unique colorful way. I love taking ordinary things and taking them to the next level.<br />
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I was in my parent's garage one day and I noticed a box of license plats. By the way- every time I spell the word "license" I misspell it- and auto correct ALWAYS fixes it. So I never actually learn how to correct the bad habit. Notice I pretty much call them "tags" in the rest of the post. :)<br />
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They had a box FULL of old tags. And since we had just moved, I noticed that we had quite the collection too. Not on purpose- but we have owned quite a few vehicles. It got my wheels spinning (<--punny- sometimes I can't help it) about how I could display them without being tacky. There really are stories behind each tag and I want my house and its walls filled with memories.<br />
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I brainstormed a few places to put this collection. The kids bathroom was high on the list since I haven't done ANYTHING in that room. But there really isn't an appropriate wall besides the wall the toilet is on- and I didn't want to have to work around that. Another place was in the basement. It's kind of where guy stuff lives (except for my hoarderish fabric collection). But again, I wanted this to live somewhere special.<br />
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I can with all honestly say that <a href="http://www.createprettyblog.com/2014/06/lukes-room-and-accent-wall.html">Luke's room</a> is the first complete room in our new house.<br />
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And he had the perfect wall. I made it my mission to paint his room first so that he had as little change as possible with the move. He told me he LOVED our new house, but there were no blue rooms. So the weekend after we closed (right before we moved in) I got to painting. We literally bought the paint 10 minutes after we got the keys at closing.<br />
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It was pretty easy to fill up his space, especially after setting up his <a href="http://www.createprettyblog.com/2014/06/mattress-in-box-proof.html">new bed</a>. I don't think it'll ever be done. There is always more to fill, and tweak, take down and put up. But I'm content right now. And since I decided the license plate wall would go in here I got right down to business.<br />
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The biggest decision was figuring out how to center it. Do I measure the middle of the wall from actual side to actual side. Or do I measure the center with the door open? Either way it would look off center. Unfortunately that's where my thought process stopped.<br />
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Here it is with the door opened (so it looks uncentered):<br />
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And here it is with the door closed- you can see it's centered on the wall:<br />
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My initial goal was to eventually put his big boy bed (BBB) that I talked about <a href="http://www.createprettyblog.com/2014/06/mattress-in-box-proof.html">here</a> on this wall. I even measured it's height so I made sure to start the tag wall high enough.<br />
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But what I didn't think about was that his BBB would be directly underneath the tags and that puts his bed too close to his door (in my opinion). I hate it when you feel like you trip over a bed the first second you walk into a room. By sitting and staring at the license plate wall long enough I figured that I could remove the vertical row on the left, remove the first horizontal column, put the first row where the horizontal column is and build onto the right. It would pretty much move everything over 9 inches which is exactly what it needs to be centered on the wall with the door open. Live and learn.<br />
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Or I'll eventually put his big boy bed on the other wall. No biggie.<br />
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Now for the nitty gritty- I didn't want to damage any of the license plates (or put half a million large-ish holes in our walls), so my first thought was to hang them with on command velcro strips. But those are expensive (for a project this big) and some of the tags are slightly bent.<br />
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Josh had the idea to use straight pins. You may be totally side-eyeing me now that I put straight pins in a wall that my 4 year old son can reach. *gasp*. But they are so secure in the wall that I can't pull them out with my bare fingers. Also he has been warned that if he touches them it will feel like a shot- and 4 year shots are still a close memory so he has stayed far away. The wall has been up for almost 4 weeks and 1 plate was knocked down once (the pins stayed secure).<br />
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First I measured and figured out exactly how high off the aground it needed to be (so I measured the bed first). Then I had to figure out how large I actually wanted it. I made a masking tape grid on the floor as a diagram. Then I laid out all the plates. I tried to use the unique ones, but I ended up needing so many that I used most of them.<br />
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I also knew I wanted to create a border using them for a more polished look. That part was a little tricky. I'm not spatial at all so I just had to lay it out and play with it.<br />
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Then I found the center of the wall (side to side) and the middle (from the bottom piece of tape to the top. That's where I started.<br />
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To check for straightness I used a little level and figured out to best place to put the tags.<br />
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Then I held it still and marked the top holes where the pins would go.<br />
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I pulled the tag down and then tapped the pins in place VERY gently. Too hard and they bend. See how the pins are barely noticeable?<br />
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A few fun facts with a visual:<br />
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-There are 5 states represented (New York, Georgia, Illinois, Pennsylvania, and Mississippi).<br />
<span style="color: magenta;">-New York has 2 duplicates since they require a front and back plate. </span><br />
<span style="color: lime;">-There are 3 tags on the wall that are still "current". 2 expire this month and 1 in August of 2014. </span><br />
-I noticed that only Georgia and Mississippi have counties listed.<br />
<span style="color: blue;">-One tag has my initials only in a different order. And it was dated 1977- long before I ever existed.</span><br />
<span style="color: orange;">-The sole Mississippi tag is the same tag Josh had when we met. It also went on our honeymoon.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKwCCc_01gaeSwSfM4vrvH6PHIhOx-4e0oEwKDzOs1NR-1WJL-_hGVS3tVq90pjXV_ZXBKhePi0pvP6wP-WX1lHarMGVkpIeowqFgPRJufozTkf0wD1RlV63pmAh_BJq6DzU9aHk1jLro/s1600/164_503873841810_7560_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKwCCc_01gaeSwSfM4vrvH6PHIhOx-4e0oEwKDzOs1NR-1WJL-_hGVS3tVq90pjXV_ZXBKhePi0pvP6wP-WX1lHarMGVkpIeowqFgPRJufozTkf0wD1RlV63pmAh_BJq6DzU9aHk1jLro/s1600/164_503873841810_7560_n.jpg" height="480" width="640" /></a></div>
-There are 2 Olympic tags.<br />
<span style="color: red;">-There's 2 "personalized" tags- Alto 2. My mom used to sing with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and this was her chair position. Cute right?</span><br />
<span style="color: cyan;">-The other personalized one was the New York one at the top. NF stood for Niagara Falls (where my dad grew up) and the number 1621 was his childhood house number. He said that was a really common thing to do back then.</span><br />
<span style="color: #f4cccc;">-There are 2 antique tags on the wall that went on my dad's restored 70 Chevy. </span><br />
-There are 4 counties from Georgia represented- Cobb, Cherokee, Stephens, and Gwinnett. The funny thing? My mom's not sure where the Gwinnett County one came from. Dad is almost certain that the Cherokee county one was from a Mustang he bought my mom for her 40th. Romantic huh?<br />
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I really loved this project! It's fun to make something fun out of practically nothing. And the minor tweaking that needs to be done shouldn't be a big deal. Sometimes it's hard to visualize things before they're actually up and to think through all the ifs and buts!by Carolinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02516313415450274208noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4295919912453389809.post-34889855508442020412014-06-13T00:27:00.002-04:002014-06-13T00:27:45.152-04:00High Five for Friday! 1. Our house and the story behind it was featured in the "home finder" section of our local paper. I was pretty excited to finally see it in print. It was actually a really fun process that I'll share sometime. For those who weren't able to read it the gist of what was printed I wrote about <a href="http://www.createprettyblog.com/2013/12/when-i-feel-overwhelming-sense-of-peace.html">here</a>. <--every time I read that post I cry. <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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2. I spent the first part of the week sorting through boxes and boxes of hand me down clothes that were given to our children from some very generous friends. I am SO THANKFUL that both our children's closets are stocked until next summer (and many larger sizes are quickly filling up). I love recycling clothes, and I can't wait to pass these on to someone else once we are finished. Such a great feeling to take care of each other!</div>
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3. We had a pool day on Monday. We spent like the WHOLE DAY there, picnic lunch included! They both LOVE the pool and splashing around. </div>
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4. I have been in high gear with my shop this week. I posted that I wanted to list 10 items on Etsy by the end of last week and 10 more by the end of this week. I actually had 20 posted by the end of last weekend and my goal is to hit 30 by this weekend (I'm at 27 now). I also had my first sale which was incredibly nerve wracking! I have been selling personalized and appliquéd shirts for YEARS but for some reason when it was through Etsy it stepped it up a notch! One of the things I've been lacking has been fabric samples so I worked one afternoon to get those together. Still have a few photos to snap but overall I'm pleased with how they came out. I had to cut out over 150 samples, organize them, "code" them, and put matching fabrics together. It was quite the undertaking! My new goal is to have 40 items listed by next weekend. We'll see how it goes!</div>
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5. I just love this sweet girl and her girly girl clothes! This outfit just melts my heart. </div>
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by Carolinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02516313415450274208noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4295919912453389809.post-67987896280370979672014-06-11T23:28:00.001-04:002015-09-02T20:44:54.720-04:00Luke's Room and the ACCENT Wall<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
I've mentioned before that when we moved in to this house I wanted as little change as possible for the little man. He had a lot of change in 2013. He gained a little sister, stopped going to his school, we left our church (and his buddies there), moved away from friends, moved in with my parents, started a new school, made new friends at a new church, and the new house. So I wanted the new house move to be as seamless as possible. </div>
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Luke went in every house with us that we walked through. He was very eager to choose "his room" in each of the houses. His only request about this room was that it had blue walls.</div>
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He actually made my life really easy since this is the only color room he's ever known. We've carried the red, white, and blue theme since his crib days:</div>
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I STILL love that crib set. It was a gift from my old co-workers and I just can't part with it. Maybe Emmie or Luke will have a boy and I will use it again one day...</div>
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The red/white/blue works for us. We love it and know that there's meaning behind it since Josh fought so hard for those colors. We will always be proud to be Americans!<br />
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Since Luke insisted... we covered all that tan. Home Depot was literally our first stop after the closing papers were signed! I wanted to get it painted before our moving truck arrived. And that proved to be a very wise move since Emmie's room STILL isn't painted. Sigh. </div>
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After the blue- before the accent wall. I mean let's be real. He's 4. #nojudging</div>
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After:</div>
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(I have a post coming later this week with details about the license plate wall)</div>
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So what did we do?<br />
1. Painted 3 walls and the ceiling "Serene Sky" blue (the same color as our <a href="http://it%27s%20the%20same%20color%20i%20used%20for%20the%20playroom%20ceiling./">playroom ceiling</a>).<br />
2. Painted the accent wall the same color as the trim (antique white).<br />
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First of all- I was shocked when I walked in this house and every ceiling was painted the same color as the walls. And actually I like it! We have 9 foot ceiling on both the first and second floors. The same color on the ceiling makes it feel forever high.<br />
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So I followed suit. I knew his room was going to be blue with a white accent wall. I thought the accent wall and ceiling being the same color would look weird. So I went with the blue. No regrets.<br />
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Next is this antique white... if I'm being honest it's not my first choice. I'm more of a crisp white girl. Notice that his comforter is crisp white, and the accent wall is more of an off/antique white. Since every last baseboard, moulding, and door is painted this antique color I'm much more willing to embrace it than change it. Heck I barely finished all the trim in our old house and this is 800 more square feet! So I caved and painted the accent wall antique white. I found the color in the garage and it's an exact match (leftover from the painters).<br />
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We lived with the blue room and 1 tan wall for about 5 months. One day it just annoyed me enough to change it. So I grabbed the bucket of paint, and a brush and went at it.<br />
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Eventually I would like to "panel" this wall. Eye candy here:<br />
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<a href="http://www.fourgenerationsoneroof.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/DIY-budget-bathroom-renovation-towels.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://www.fourgenerationsoneroof.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/DIY-budget-bathroom-renovation-towels.jpg" height="640" width="424" /></a></div>
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{<a href="http://www.fourgenerationsoneroof.com/2013/01/bathroom-board-and-batten-wainscoting-tutorial.html">source</a>}</div>
On to the rest of the room.<br />
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We moved the futon from the basement to here. We figure when we have guests we'll turn his room over to them. You can sleep 3 plus the floor. Also the guests would have their own bathroom.<br />
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This little man has the most amazing closet. Oh to have that space! We are planning to put hooks along the left wall and label them with the days of the week so I can choose and hang up his clothes a few days at a time. Right now I just throw them in a pile on the floor but I thought the hooks would be a nice touch.<br />
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We would eventually like to rework this closet, but for now it works. I mentioned <a href="http://www.createprettyblog.com/2014/06/mattress-in-box-proof.html">here </a>that Luke's bed will eventually be Emmies. This dresser will be hers too to make the set. So this will be tweaked down the road. </div>
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This is a well loved and very played in room. I love every last detail and how it all came together!</div>
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I shared <a href="http://www.createprettyblog.com/2014/06/out-with-boob-in-with-new.html">earlier this week</a> about how we swapped out his light too!</div>
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Once his closet is finished and we do the final furniture switcheroo a few years down the road this room will officially be done! I love it and I can't wait to tackle the princess' room next!</div>
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by Carolinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02516313415450274208noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4295919912453389809.post-34537173584046265382014-06-09T00:01:00.000-04:002014-06-09T08:22:58.181-04:00Mattress in a box!! Skeptical? Yeah me too.<br />
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Luke very matter of factly told us one day that he no longer needed his Thomas bed. That he was a big boy and he wanted a big bed like us. So as I swallowed the lump in my throat and wiped my misty tears and slowly accepted that he won't be a baby forever, Josh and I decided to follow his lead.<br />
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{this was a year ago at our old house}</div>
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I dreaded the day we had to get rid of Thomas. I actually thought WE would have to take it away (with a lot of pomp and circumstance surrounding the addition of the BBB-big boy bed).<br />
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Although a little sad, I'm happy that he came about this decision on his own. My momma heart knew he was ready to say goodbye. BTW Thomas is still in our garage- perfect condition for sale. Just let me know ;) <--- hey why not right?<br />
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We already had a twin sized bed (my childhood bed) in our storage closet. Long story short? We had this bed in our "guest room" before we had kids. Kids (and my embroidery machine came along) so we dismantled it. We actually put Luke in it when the side on his crib didn't work for a toddler bed at 18 months. He slept in it from 18months-2ish years. Then came Thomas. So the bed got dismantled again and we sold the mattress and box spring so we didn't have to store it.<br />
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Ok back to the present. We had the headboard and footboard, but needed a mattress and box spring. Have you checked the price of a twin size mattress and box spring lately? Holy cow. Most places sold sets for $300. Yeah, no. This bed will be peed on, puked on, and slept on a lot.<br />
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I did a lot of research. We didn't need it to be a certain "firmness" or anything. I checked the Macy's clearance center, big lots, and the local ads for sales. Nothing was coming under $250.<br />
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We posted on a local yard sale site that we were looking for a box spring. I would NEVER buy a used mattress- that's just a personal thing. But a used box spring I was okay with. We found one and purchased it for $25.<br />
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I found the "mattress in a box" at good old Walmart. I paid $119 and right after we bought it it jumped to $169. Now it's $99. What in the world?!<br />
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I was REALLY curious about how it would be delivered. It did explain in the description that it would come in a box, but I was still really stumped. There was free shipping, so I didn't ask any questions!<br />
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A few days later it arrived!<br />
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The directions were pretty straightforward. This came when Josh was away. See the "team lift" part? Yeah. I didn't have my team- so I pushed this baby up our staircase (3 turns total). I opened the box and it was in a vacuumed sealed bag. The directions instructed to unroll it and then puncture the bag. It kinda unrolled itself. You are supposed to open it within 24 hours of receiving. One of the reviews said that someone else's opened on its own before they got it in the house. Haha. I could totally picture that happening to me and having a huge mattress I couldn't lift in our foyer. ;)<br />
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As soon as I punctured the bag (like the directions said) it puffed up to the size of a normal mattress! I was very impressed. I laid it on Luke's floor and of course this was like the best day of his life.<br />
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We let it puff overnight and then he slept on it on the floor until daddy got home to set up his bed.<br />
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Overall I really like the quality. Although it is a coil bed the mattress part that you lay on feels more like foam. But not like a cheap mattress topper. It's thick and I have never felt any coils. Also there may have been an accident or 2 already, but again it has been super easy to clean with no odor left behind. It doesn't even stain!<br />
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So mattress in a box gets two big thumbs up from me. Long term? This will be Emmie's bed. I plan to paint it white and pass it down and when she outgrows her crib Luke will get it (headboard and footboard) and upgrade to a full/queen mattress. Emmie will get this old bed and this twin mattress. Luke just lucks out and gets all the new stuff ;) #firstbornprobs<br />
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For $145 we got an almost completely new mattress set! And assuming the price stays low (and this baby holds up) we'll be purchasing his full/queen this way as well. Love the ease of free shipping to the house!</div>
by Carolinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02516313415450274208noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4295919912453389809.post-61738952606461363132014-06-06T08:45:00.000-04:002014-06-06T08:50:10.043-04:00High Five for Friday!I didn't post an update last week simply because I had posted lots of updates the last few weeks with very little blog content. I'm back at it and have several posts ready to go! Hooray summer!<br />
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1. We have been busy at the pool! I can officially say that Luke can swim. He has worked so hard the past 2-ish weeks and I couldn't be prouder! I really didn't think this would be his summer to swim. He had a lot of fear of the water when we first got in when the pool opened, but by watching his friends and wearing goggles that cover his nose (a MUST HAVE) he has just taken off! How did we teach him to swim? He had formal lessons for 2 weeks over the past 2 years (not much). But they advised me to not use arm floaties (not that they're bad- but they give a false sense of security and lengthen the process). Oh how I was SO TEMPTED to use them when I saw other kids jumping in the deep end this year but we resisted. He did have a little dolphin float that he would "ride" while kicking. But one day he started going under and holding his breath. Then one day a neighborhood friend let Luke borrow his goggles and Luke told me he wanted to swim to me! So I went out a few steps and he did it! We would get farther and farther from the edge. He can now pretty much swim from the center of the pool to the outside! I do still stand next to him and touch his side so he knows I'm there but he rarely ever grabs me. I couldn't be prouder of how hard he has worked!<br />
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2. Em developed a case of Cellulitis (not to be confused with cellulite) from her MMR vaccine. She has been PITIFUL and I am ready for this all to be behind us! Basically staph infection (most likely not MERSA) entered her skin at the injection site and caused a lot of swelling, pain, fever and cold-like symptoms. 12 days out she still had a fever and the injection site was raised and red with a rash, and hot to the touch. Poor baby. A little antibiotics and a lot of sleep later and she is on the mend. And yes I am still very PRO-Vax. :)</div>
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3. We had pictures taken with the lovely Suni Cawthon! Can't WAIT to get them and get the blog updated with current photos. Don't judge me that my baby is a year old and she hasn't made the blog side bar yet ;) Overall the kids did GREAT. I was so proud of Luke for going with the flow. For not feeling 100% Em did fabulous!<br />
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4. Last night we all watched a thunderstorm roll in. It was BEAUTIFUL! We were right on the edge of the storm clouds and they were churning and rolling and it was just perfect. Luke was a little freaked so he went inside, but it was just perfect. I LOVE storms!<br />
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5. It's my mom's birthday today so we'll most likely do something for dinner. Love that lady and thankful for another year with her!!<br />
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6. And a number 6 this week just because life is so exciting! I have relaunched my Etsy shop! I love Facebook and there are certain thing Facbeook allows you to do that Etsy doesn't, but Facebook is totally in control about how many people/who sees a page. Some posts I'll get close to 200 views and another I'll have 2. It's very frustrating. I want my "followers" to be able to see my stuff if they like my page ya know?! If they don't want to see it they unlike it! But Facbeook is making it where people who like my page aren't seeing the updates and are pressuring me to buy "ads". And from different forums I'm on where people have tried buying ads they don't see many more views. I'm still going to keep Facebook going (and prices tend to be less through Facbeook- simply because of Etsy's fees).<br />
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My goal is to eventually have 100 listings- 10 per week over the next few weeks! Check it out and pass the word along! I love creating and this is my outlet!<br />
<br />by Carolinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02516313415450274208noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4295919912453389809.post-32782249058764330352014-06-05T00:01:00.000-04:002014-06-05T00:01:00.473-04:00Out with the boob... in with the new<div>
I have a few posts ready with Luke's "new " room! We have been busy little bees working away these past few months. Don't think my blog silence equals laziness. Typically if I'm not typing, I'm working on something. </div>
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We were ready to switch out the light in Luke's room. I can't get over how many boob lights are in this house. It's like they were giving them away free when they built our house. And my association with these lights just kills me. I'm not sure where I first heard this term. But one look and you'll see that I in fact am not being crude and immature. I.just.can't.get.past.it.</div>
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Total count for the house? Nine. Eleven if you count the ceiling fans in the living room and our bedroom. They look the same except with a fan on top. I just about died when I saw our chandelier. </div>
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Yeah. I really wanna switch it out.</div>
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Anyways... Not only are these lights terrible aesthetically, but they do not give off enough light. The glass is cloudy and it emits ZERO light. I seriously feel blind in any room I am in with them. While we waited to swap out Luke's light we actually took the globe off to shed more light into the room. Emmie's is still off in her room {the room that MIGHT be finished when she moves out for college}. </div>
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I knew we wanted a ceiling fan in there. We're in the deep south y'all. And we're cheap. I can assure you our thermostat isn't set to 72 degrees all summer. When we had an energy audit done at our old house the guy said leaving fans on and doors open cools a house more than you think. So that's what we do. And we saw the results in energy savings. </div>
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I mentioned we're cheap right? I really wanted to find a second hand fan. I just love the idea of recycling. Saving something perfectly functional before it ends up at the dump. Since moving to a new area we were sure to join all the local online Facebook yardsales. I was wanting a white fan in there and one day one popped up for $15. New they run minimum $60. I told Josh and he immediately contacted the guy. When Josh met him to get it he discounted it to $10 since it was missing a few pieces. In my terms- that meant we bought a piece of crap. Josh assured me it was NBD. </div>
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We brought that sucker home and spent half a day trying to figure out what pieces we needed. We grabbed the spare pieces from Lowes and started piecing it together. The fan part worked flawlessly but it took a while to get the lights to work. </div>
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Some sweat labor and a FaceTime call between him at the fan and me at the breaker box and he had it working!</div>
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The icing on the cake? These cute little pulls from Lowes. I think I squealed in the store. What better way to keep it straight which is which. And they look absolutely darling in a kids room! </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEja36rAlYvt39rFiD1yq7nmsiGxkRcuyRbfgUhlLH5_-zE3A9K2SyrbjtRkogCjiONTTCZSTzeI8xjFhl0Yl2ebzNkiUjiJDRsfDbBJL0Dwz_T9u85y_dECToSEFmxSJGx1DCngna8Q-5w/s1600/IMG_7802a.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEja36rAlYvt39rFiD1yq7nmsiGxkRcuyRbfgUhlLH5_-zE3A9K2SyrbjtRkogCjiONTTCZSTzeI8xjFhl0Yl2ebzNkiUjiJDRsfDbBJL0Dwz_T9u85y_dECToSEFmxSJGx1DCngna8Q-5w/s1600/IMG_7802a.jpg" height="426" width="640" /></a></div>
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Another thing I love about this house is the separate switches for the lights/fans. In both kids rooms the second switch didn't control anything. So he wired the light to turn on with the first switch and the fan to turn on with the second. And he gave me the choice which I wanted first. Bonus points! The fan is ALWAYS running and we try to use natural light as much as possible!</div>
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Thrilled with this upgrade. It took a little more sweat than the typical install but it was worth the savings. After buying parts and the cute pulls the total was less than $25 for the whole thing! A penny saved it a penny earned right?!</div>
by Carolinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02516313415450274208noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4295919912453389809.post-65572620174232051242014-06-04T00:01:00.000-04:002015-06-24T08:48:14.302-04:00How to create a watermarkThis has been on my todo list for a while. I don't feel like a legit blogger since there aren't watermarks slathered all over my pictures on here and on my "<strike>business</strike>" hobby page on Facebook.<br />
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I've decided to take the plunge. I have heard horror stories from fellow bloggers and embroiderers who have had their images stolen and have found them being used improperly.<br />
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Let me just say that I am 99.987% sure that other people have probably already blogged about this. But I honestly figured this out on my own. There was one part I was totally stumped on and I'll talk about that a little farther down.<br />
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I used the totally free online photo editor picmonkey.com. They know nothing about me so there is no way that I was paid or perked to use them. I use them because I used picnik back in the old days, and needed a similar program when picnik folded. The funny thing? I have photoshop on my computer and have used it VERY minimally (I think photoshop uses a part of my brain that doesn't exist). I'm sure it does the same thing and is better than picmonkey in more ways to count, but to do this quickly I turned to the familiar.<br />
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Ok let's back up... wait how can we back up when we haven't started? Sometimes I confuse myself.<br />
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Watermarks are SUPER easy to do when you are editing an image. But I wanted to take it a step further and add it to pictures I take with my phone. 40% of what I put on my business page is taken from my phone. I wanted my watermark to be uniform from the computer AND my phone.<br />
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I went in to just play around with basic watermarking. So I clicked edit>upload photo>choose photo.<br />
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Next I chose the font I wanted. So I click on Tt>didact gothic>typed in create pretty.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgI0rR07q54x3HCx9n4SRshIe2XmBdkC8cPh8-yXcBLVfCoXjs5sZGjCWhWmfcLeJ7a_DugZqlEaX5QN_G1NKKSC1Yc9TCQm1YheMkbj6-XhVecy-kRHWKKTyrX2mxl8u2SDHG8dfKiTE0/s1600/Screen+Shot+2014-05-15+at+9.08.15+PM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="272" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgI0rR07q54x3HCx9n4SRshIe2XmBdkC8cPh8-yXcBLVfCoXjs5sZGjCWhWmfcLeJ7a_DugZqlEaX5QN_G1NKKSC1Yc9TCQm1YheMkbj6-XhVecy-kRHWKKTyrX2mxl8u2SDHG8dfKiTE0/s1600/Screen+Shot+2014-05-15+at+9.08.15+PM.png" width="640" /></a></div>
I took this extra step because I wanted to get a feel of what the watermark would really look like on a picture. I wanted SIMPLE. Less is more. Especially when I usually add more text to these pictures. I wanted the watermark to blend in as much as possible.<br />
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Next I blew up the text. That sounds really great... but it's not very exciting. There it was size 138. I made it size 618. I also changed the color to white and faded it 70%.<br />
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I adjusted it diagonally and then added the rest of my text. Simple right? I love how the watermark blends in yet is visible. The "white shirt" writing is actually overlapping the watermark but you can't really tell (or it doesn't jump out like typical overlapping would).<br />
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Super easy to do but not practical when you need to add this to ten pictures. Once I decided on a watermark font/fade/color I needed to create an image of that watermark with a TRANSPARENT background. Why?<br />
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Two reasons:<br />
1. So I could pull the watermark image up and overlay it over any future photos. That will save me the step of having to create it each time.<br />
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2. I needed the transparent background image for an app called Watermark It Pro. To keep this post from becoming a book I'll do a second post about this app and how to use the picmonkey photo there.<br />
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This is where I had to consult google. I knew what I needed to do but I wasn't sure how to do it. A quick search landed me in pic monkey's <a href="http://www.picmonkey.com/blog/cool-tips-nobody-knows/">tips no one knows</a>, and I quickly found my answer. There's a lot of snark in these answers so it's kinda fun to read... the mascara comment? Hilarious.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfJn5SkJcwXfQ8YMoaUZh2Zq1SboN_HsQ95QQAQUSl1pVdqyfx7C9eLEhphS2GhS_PJfpOTQFzeGC-94I59RCZ5q_B_UJDH4A4FPMsscaINcMSkFY9OwxYvDj9TdhgmEv1oyLO7Nr8sA4/s1600/Screen+Shot+2014-05-15+at+9.27.32+PM.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="344" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfJn5SkJcwXfQ8YMoaUZh2Zq1SboN_HsQ95QQAQUSl1pVdqyfx7C9eLEhphS2GhS_PJfpOTQFzeGC-94I59RCZ5q_B_UJDH4A4FPMsscaINcMSkFY9OwxYvDj9TdhgmEv1oyLO7Nr8sA4/s1600/Screen+Shot+2014-05-15+at+9.27.32+PM.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
The key is you have to create a COLLAGE. This is the only option from the homepage that will allow you to make the background transparent.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglOIGwiSHhO8orPEX06qoLHg130hRMCge7NizVESA527EiET-jGMDdyrZ1468bI8Z86mgR0DjGaopwCcI2Qist43sTjEBaiB15uwXz8yxM0u2sTcjLj7NW6mftl26PY3ABeRorjIo3JAA/s1600/Screen+Shot+2014-05-15+at+9.33.32+PM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="196" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglOIGwiSHhO8orPEX06qoLHg130hRMCge7NizVESA527EiET-jGMDdyrZ1468bI8Z86mgR0DjGaopwCcI2Qist43sTjEBaiB15uwXz8yxM0u2sTcjLj7NW6mftl26PY3ABeRorjIo3JAA/s1600/Screen+Shot+2014-05-15+at+9.33.32+PM.png" width="640" /></a></div>
Click on "collage" and open a random picture. It doesn't matter which picture because you'll delete it. You are really creating a fake collage.<br />
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Near the first arrow you'll see my "fake" picture that I won't use and the second arrow is pointing to the X in the upper right hand corner of the collages. Delete 2 of the boxes so you are left with a single cell (or ONE white box).<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0cvPPrhE-8APdkaPqAtRgv5aHvAKZ6H9d2WQR1MEwnUjhS7HNGUJPOrc1c-fDOpZaT6jdOLdTEH7T7NycNMStozgSHRe5mR1K8vg2Dwxg7VB5MZ794UfUVbSpH7lrhQTY2QN1mVmEZaI/s1600/Screen+Shot+2014-05-15+at+9.34.58+PM.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="260" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0cvPPrhE-8APdkaPqAtRgv5aHvAKZ6H9d2WQR1MEwnUjhS7HNGUJPOrc1c-fDOpZaT6jdOLdTEH7T7NycNMStozgSHRe5mR1K8vg2Dwxg7VB5MZ794UfUVbSpH7lrhQTY2QN1mVmEZaI/s1600/Screen+Shot+2014-05-15+at+9.34.58+PM.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
Click on the painter's pallet and the click transparent background. The white of the cell will disappear (where my red dots are).<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6GhduyOvlfpkY7vAcvDgtfZBqPq9KAyWAN70LmQzntY6v4D6ydDrgCTYRS826ySKuE007EtYUd-_HqciOS0JXcG5RNu4B7k3LzZQdh9msi0C5X2Rg1-hwFTIvnh8R_8EWXIL2a46fDNU/s1600/Screen+Shot+2014-05-15+at+9.38.19+PM.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="288" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6GhduyOvlfpkY7vAcvDgtfZBqPq9KAyWAN70LmQzntY6v4D6ydDrgCTYRS826ySKuE007EtYUd-_HqciOS0JXcG5RNu4B7k3LzZQdh9msi0C5X2Rg1-hwFTIvnh8R_8EWXIL2a46fDNU/s1600/Screen+Shot+2014-05-15+at+9.38.19+PM.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
Save it. Now.<br />
Reopen it in the edit mode. So go back to picmonkey.com>edit>chooseTHATphotoyoujustsaved<br />
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When it opens in the edit mode it will look like a gray and white checkerboard. That's good.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUZzBH0RNQV24qw446KJUbRoschAAsX0c3hqv2M3rtfvPPuVKGTAXnoaUt-Qm_QG7GfEE0zU5yWnM4461RzsgQ2JTrKb_ke7dZyPlxwJ1VMpGflz-KJ2lVnUX2KOd1LGcfmtTeqLj9ZmE/s1600/Screen+Shot+2014-05-15+at+9.51.08+PM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="314" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUZzBH0RNQV24qw446KJUbRoschAAsX0c3hqv2M3rtfvPPuVKGTAXnoaUt-Qm_QG7GfEE0zU5yWnM4461RzsgQ2JTrKb_ke7dZyPlxwJ1VMpGflz-KJ2lVnUX2KOd1LGcfmtTeqLj9ZmE/s1600/Screen+Shot+2014-05-15+at+9.51.08+PM.png" width="640" /></a></div>
Now recreate the watermark. This is exactly what I did in the first few steps of this post. Choose the font, size, color, fade. Don't be so worried about the size because you will be able to adjust the size each time.<br />
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You can't really see it, but it's there.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0laOAvLdr8E9Ca80rUYrbJO54srZREhd4VEAYKV5897SG_6NM0-0u47KzZQt3eBoLNs-jvTodb8AlZ1_DdpyW5DEtrwLH6VK2sWlBNzhWAupYCUdYdO-bc9d65iT1W003knRwnhZHfBk/s1600/Screen+Shot+2014-05-15+at+9.58.25+PM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="284" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0laOAvLdr8E9Ca80rUYrbJO54srZREhd4VEAYKV5897SG_6NM0-0u47KzZQt3eBoLNs-jvTodb8AlZ1_DdpyW5DEtrwLH6VK2sWlBNzhWAupYCUdYdO-bc9d65iT1W003knRwnhZHfBk/s1600/Screen+Shot+2014-05-15+at+9.58.25+PM.png" width="640" /></a></div>
Save that and you have a watermark with a transparent background.<br />
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Since you've created the watermark, you now need to upload it onto the picture you are wanting to watermark. Go back to the home screen: click edit>open photo and choose the photo you want to watermark.<br />
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Then on the left and side click the butterfly and the overlay section will come up:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgq-CpYACZBkgNYZjcteWfQ2-Qo1ogs2luMgMcjVeQAvPALJepNk7ncLxIWXhUkTDFqZNMeUqbof-Rzh3aVxGvvPK5NXThZT4QQHwgFpm5Hc_v17Kut1TiDq7Pvagl0-NKLPzKwMKBD718/s1600/Screen+Shot+2014-05-15+at+10.06.41+PM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="298" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgq-CpYACZBkgNYZjcteWfQ2-Qo1ogs2luMgMcjVeQAvPALJepNk7ncLxIWXhUkTDFqZNMeUqbof-Rzh3aVxGvvPK5NXThZT4QQHwgFpm5Hc_v17Kut1TiDq7Pvagl0-NKLPzKwMKBD718/s1600/Screen+Shot+2014-05-15+at+10.06.41+PM.png" width="640" /></a></div>
Click "your own" under overlays and choose the transparent background image you just saved. Instead of pulling up a gray checkerboard box, it will just pull up the watermark you made.<br />
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It will insert the watermark VERY small:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCO4N4KTdwjAAJAWgYkl9fwNAc8WERs2q0LIJ0ceGG9q63MKa90nLkN1A50WA4L9QA9-t9Y0vHlDl7H0UjzU1Z7BsKqEiHWApHUS5nNvRyr0tdGrcYHcUx3UN4M6K0o9RnId1KcVCHCw0/s1600/Screen+Shot+2014-05-15+at+10.08.14+PM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="278" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCO4N4KTdwjAAJAWgYkl9fwNAc8WERs2q0LIJ0ceGG9q63MKa90nLkN1A50WA4L9QA9-t9Y0vHlDl7H0UjzU1Z7BsKqEiHWApHUS5nNvRyr0tdGrcYHcUx3UN4M6K0o9RnId1KcVCHCw0/s1600/Screen+Shot+2014-05-15+at+10.08.14+PM.png" width="640" /></a></div>
Just drag the corners and adjust how you'd like it to look:<br />
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Click save and you're done! It may seem like a lot of work up front but once your watermark is created you can use it over and over without redoing it. I'll share a follow up post with how to add watermarks to iPhone photos. I figured this was enough pictures for one post! </div>
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Psssst... jump over <a href="http://www.createprettyblog.com/2014/06/watermark-part-2-watermark-it-pro.html" target="_blank">here</a> for the watermark app tutorial. :) </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEib5ttPigAdJG9wYIHG_QG0PJ7NhSv23VnxXvV2I0k4dYN0wvqqDt5moxQf50KAbUhcxnqhoKICkGnlQA-I9SQm_CnKeesAis3_XMaDi1fDyTH1-lnzer2jNTkrrrBRlBM-B7iJpdZH2Hc/s1600/name.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="82" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEib5ttPigAdJG9wYIHG_QG0PJ7NhSv23VnxXvV2I0k4dYN0wvqqDt5moxQf50KAbUhcxnqhoKICkGnlQA-I9SQm_CnKeesAis3_XMaDi1fDyTH1-lnzer2jNTkrrrBRlBM-B7iJpdZH2Hc/s1600/name.png" width="320" /></a></div>
by Carolinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02516313415450274208noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4295919912453389809.post-38242924218509615182014-06-02T00:01:00.000-04:002014-06-02T09:14:27.376-04:00Sewing: A skirt and a bagI got the sewing itch a few weeks back so I wanted to share what I made! I really have to be in the mood to sew, and the itch doesn't come around too often. To me sewing takes ALOT of thought. I'm not spacial at all. Geometry was HARD for me. Monogramming and doing appliqués is totally brainless to me. So I do that much more.<br />
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Speaking of... my embroidery machine totally died. It desperately needs to go to the shop, but I really didn't feel like forking out $100 for it to be fixed when the sewing machine part works fine (I have a sewing/embroidering combo). So Josh agreed that the $100 should go toward a new machine- the machine I have totally been drooling over. In a month I've put over 200,000 stitches on it. Typical monograms are usually no more than 10,000 stitches and appliques range from 4,000-15,000. So that's alot of work!<br />
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I thought I would share my latest sewing projects with you and give you direct links to the tutorials I used. I have ventured into the world of Etsy patterns, but I haven't finished a project yet, so I'll be back later with how that goes.<br />
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All these are free tutorials that use basic measuring and lots of color pictures. My kinda language.<br />
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First up is the library bag I made Luke. I've been wanting to get him a library bag to carry his books to and from and I was just going to try to find a cute reusable bag. But my mom found a fat quarter (that's a sewing/quilting term for a few scraps of coordinating fabric) at our local Tuesday Morning and this project instantly came to mind!<br />
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I quilted (haha hardly right?!) the scraps together to make larger panels.<br />
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and it's reversible. Think that's hard? Think again!<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOZJ0_99_SVEC1bK0Y4Xk5XVay-B5uNZnTnizEUPQHkwGyOg9RmLRMn9ZipO1xsFo_ujY7h4G-tTySY-i-2XtztWUiU6_ofqCP2Xd-h4hzWooMqAMzuufipql8-FvBF4ZCS9_3tLB-slk/s1600/dstwetwe.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOZJ0_99_SVEC1bK0Y4Xk5XVay-B5uNZnTnizEUPQHkwGyOg9RmLRMn9ZipO1xsFo_ujY7h4G-tTySY-i-2XtztWUiU6_ofqCP2Xd-h4hzWooMqAMzuufipql8-FvBF4ZCS9_3tLB-slk/s1600/dstwetwe.JPG" height="400" width="263" /></a></div>
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I found the tutorial <a href="http://www.skiptomylou.org/2009/07/17/how-to-make-a-simple-reversible-totebag/">here</a>. The possibilities are literally endless. Beach bags. Big tote bags. Little doll bags. On and on. The tutorial was great, except I had a hard time figuring out how to attach the straps. It goes back to that spacial thing. I can't visualize anything. The tutorial was right, there was a little user error and I had assembled it wrong. It was an easy fix.<br />
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Next is this adorable skirt.<br />
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We had birthday pictures planned for our sweet girl and she needed the perfect party outfit. Her party (which was at the beginning of May) was "You are my sunshine" and this skirt fabric just screamed "sunshine" to me! I appliqued a sun (with various ribbon for the sunbeams) in coordinating fabric on a bib, and then I monogrammed her initials on a shirt. I actually didn't plan to add a contrasting band to the skirt originally, but I thought it would really pop in her pictures and match her shirt. I LOVE how it turned out! Here's a sneak peek at some birthday pictures:<br />
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Tutorial can be found <a href="http://www.scatteredthoughtsofacraftymom.com/2012/03/simple-skirt-tutorial-with-3-options.html">here</a>. By the way there are 2 other tutorials there and all are equally amazing! The hardest part was figuring out the measurements. I measured Emberly and then I used a pair of her pants as a guide (since I mainly sew when she's sleeping).<br />
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I have a few more skirts and bib projects waiting in the wings. Honestly I've been too wrapped up with my new machine that I haven't touched my sewing machine in weeks. Hoping to get the itch soon (cause I have some stinking cute fabric to bust out!).by Carolinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02516313415450274208noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4295919912453389809.post-9269649454463282142014-05-28T22:52:00.002-04:002014-05-29T10:17:30.772-04:00Spring Florals...The 90s called:Soooo I'm not sure whether to laugh or cry. Duggars... meet french chic. Can this even qualify as chic? Those buttons... and puff sleeves. Please excuse my hair- this is called summer pool hair #dontcare.<br />
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My mom and I have been massively purging old things. Toys, clothes, etc. Every time I go over to her house she has another box for me to go through. </div>
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I wish I could say that this was an amazing thrift store find that I paid 25cents for. Nope. This was a dress I actually wore. What's worse? I was able to squeeze into it. Why did I attempt such madness?? Because Josh said he wouldn't snap the picture until I did... and I couldn't stop laughing. Oh and just for the record. My mom has a matching one. #sorryIcouldntletyouoffthehook</div>
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I ALWAYS have my eye out for fabric that I can use for applique. Most appliques are done with tiny fabric scraps. So as this was in the toss pile (cause let's be honest... I wanted to spare Goodwill the blindness) I suddenly thought how cute it would be as an appliqued monogram.</div>
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I mean spring florals ARE in (although I can't really see myself in them). I'm more of a stripe, neutral, classic navy person. But I can appreciate these and how these ladies rock them:</div>
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{<a href="http://urbanhepburn.blogspot.com/2013/05/gifts-and-gift-cards.html?m=1">source</a>}</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlUitZTbJeBxLQ24qtU9Fkmy1Smw0dOdSlVX8n1orkA3emgFYq3yvF4X07gzQu2z3j-ce3YxdrQEpB6m7njZcm2auWbg4qM8qCNcMWl1nOL2bNSL42HyMDJeQXZ6EehRNOwIAN3Ai6e4gK/s1600/lamalu.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlUitZTbJeBxLQ24qtU9Fkmy1Smw0dOdSlVX8n1orkA3emgFYq3yvF4X07gzQu2z3j-ce3YxdrQEpB6m7njZcm2auWbg4qM8qCNcMWl1nOL2bNSL42HyMDJeQXZ6EehRNOwIAN3Ai6e4gK/s1600/lamalu.png" height="400" width="267" /></a></div>
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{<a href="http://www.thelaurenelizabeth.com/2014/05/feminine-florals-giveaway.html">source</a>}</div>
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I had also been crushing on this font that I knew would look perfect with the hideous dress fabric:</div>
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A little bit of playing with the font and a couple hundred stitches later... I say it turned out pretty darn cute! Really loving those stripes too! Not bad for turning literal trash into a treasure!</div>
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by Carolinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02516313415450274208noreply@blogger.com0