Wednesday night fun times!

On Wednesdays, D bowls in a league... this means I'm home alone and free to play as I please!

Tonight's project: Transfer images on to stretched canvas.

I'm cheap. Since this was the first try, I wanted to go as cheap as possible, so I printed out 2 pictures of our kiddos at an undisclosed location (that's right, SECRETS!) and got the smallest canvases I could find. Because they're cheapest. Yep.

Step 1:  Print picture on regular printer paper. Use gel medium to adhere picture (I flipped the picture around before printing it, as they transfer backwards) to canvas. Cover canvas in one good flat coat of this stuff.  I was told (by Pinterest) to get medium gloss gel medium or something, but I ended up with this stuff and it apparently worked just fine!

Glue the pics on to the Canvas with ^^ That stuff... looks like this... 

'

Step 2: Smooth out lines on paper with something flat... credit card, ruler, or... you know, cardboard from the new glitter you just bought... :)

Step 3: WAIT forEVER for it to DRY.  (And by forever, I mean about 3-4 hours)
Step 4: Douse the paper with water from a squirt bottle til it soaks through... pull/ball/roll off the paper slowly.

 Rub gently and the paper will start to rub off.

I rubbed the edges of each picture to make them look all jagged, too. So that's neat. :)  ALSO, Carmen is too dark. I kept re-wetting and re-rubbing to get all the paper off of her picture so that I could see her & accidentally rubbed off some of the picture. Oh well. That adds to the novelty, right? 

Carmen's finished picture... note the white spots where I rubbed the picture off. Haha oops. 

Tini's completed picture... 

Step 5: When the canvas is pretty much dry, swipe with a medium-thick layer of the gloss/gel medium stuff again to set it. This way- you won't continue to wipe off the picture! YAY!

I am so excited to know how to do this! You better believe that I will be doing this with every dang picture from NOW ON.

Oh- relatives, loved ones, etc... you're welcome. You're welcome for your awesome pictures you'll be getting done like this for the rest of your lives!

Enjoy! 

♥ 

EM

Merry McChristmas to you!

Last night, D left to go bowling and the house was normal.
He came home to a Christmas Wonderland! I think there's still more to do, though, so he will probably be surprised when he gets back tonight as well.
Sneaky Snake, I am!

Some pictures for you---

Our Tree! I'll put another picture when I wrap the other presents :)

This is beside the tree - against the wall you walk in and see. I wrapped the lamps with tinsel to make them Christmas-y! So fun! Who needs fancy crap, I use $1 tinsel and bobby pins!
Also, Note the Green and Yellow/Gold Balls. 12-0

 My boyfriend Santa greets you at the door. Be careful- he's watching even if he does appear to be winking! And he might be staring at your butt a little, too. Who knows.  We've had to get creative with him because he's old and fragile and Carmen's whip of a tail will kill him with one good lick if we're not careful!

The Children's Stockings. Tini on L, Carmen on R with Brown Dog on it

Even our DVDs are in the spirit!

 Yes, Santa dancing singing bear-Elvis and Large Elvis ornament that sings and dances and lights up. Love it!

Baby Christmas Tree on the table

More pictures are to come, I'm sure... but there's a little hint of how crazy our house looks right now.

Enjoy!

♥ EM


***UPDATE***
There is now a second Tree. It's 4 feet tall and in the window on the opposite side of the room :)  That's what happens when D goes to Franklin 2 nights in a row.  We'll see how he takes it...

Baby Tree with niece presents under it

Completed-12, 14, 45, 56, 68; 4, 30, 33, 55, 66, 73 in progress... TAKE THAT

Since we have been internet free, several things on my 101 in 1001 have occurred. I will try to update briefly!

The following have been completed:

12- Decide what to do with the extra shower in our bathroom. THAT SUCKER WILL BE A CLOSET. Of course, I haven't had this DONE yet... but I KNOW what I want to do with it! YAHOOO! :) I can't wait! I just need a plummer to move the pipes, put a shower in our tub, replace our tub, then tile in the walls of the bath tub... and we're IN BUSINESS.
Yeah- see why it hasn't been done yet?

14- Decorate our naked wall in our living room.

Check!  You can sort of see it behind Ms. SanDiego's fat head in the picture.

45- Take an entire week off of work STRAIGHT.
I did it and it was AMAZING. I did nothing. I went nowhere. However, during this week was when #71 also was completed. D & I went for pedis Mon March 28.

56- Go to a Preds game IN Preds gear.
I do not have a single close up picture of this, but I swear it happened!!

68- Get a new surround sound system.
Thanks to my parents, this was completed free of charge to me! haha Happy Birthday to me, new blue ray surround sound thing!

71- See #45 description


The following are in progress:
4- Pay off the truck.
Slowly slowly slowly but surely!

30- Figure out if Carmen IS deaf and HOW bad it is!
 We went to the Dr last week. There's nothing obscuring her ears, so it may be inflamed inner tubes. She's currently on drugs to see if that's it.
Cross your fingers!

33- Keep fresh flowers in the house for 2 months straight

Hopefully this will be easy. For my Bday I got some gorgeous flowers from D. Some are still alive miraculously! I have flowers outside that are now blooming, so hopefully this will be easy- as I really just have to go CUT something once a week to have it work!  Those are my ghetto irises. They're too heavy to stick up on their own, so yeah. I tied those bad boys up to the front porch!

55- Dye my hair almost completely blonde.
I don't know if that's going to happen. I'm starting to think blonde isn't my color! haha We're doing this in phases.

66- Read 12 books
I'm about 1/3 of the way there? I read Strengths Finder 2.0... and some other ones that I don't remember right now


73- I have Spring, Summer, and Fall!!! Just need winter and I'm DONE!

OK after that, I need a nap.

Here's a quick picture of my precious Tini since we have a fathead picture in here as well :)

That's All.

So, Can I just tell you how much I love my husband?
Not only does he NOT push me out of bed when I tough-talk him in my sleep, but he also does such a fantastic job of being patient and understanding when I'm being irrational/overly-emotional, he sings stupid songs to me (& makes them up as he goes), and he does some other pretty ridiculous things in order to surprise me or make me smile.

With the help of one of my friends, I recently had an epiphany! She and I were talking about random crap and something came up about stupid little arguments that we get in as couples. She then looked at me and said something like, "Yeah you argue about the direction the towels should be rolled, and he leaves his underwear in the floor, but really you should consider yourself lucky to have someone you love that you can share your life with."

That hit me pretty hard. I don't know why, but I have assumed that people would rather hear the negative than the positive. I suppose it could be that I remember when I was last single... I was incredibly bitter for a lot of that time. I would see happy couples and say, "awww so sweeeeet..." then in my head call them phony or stupid or whatever other horrible thing I could think of. I was only happy when I saw other people miserable, because that's where I was. I wanted friends there with me! I wanted to hear about the stupid crap that makes people mad at each other and all the negatives of relationships, because I wanted to convince myself that they're all like that. That it wasn't just me who was unhappy in a past relationship, or it wasn't just me who had been struggling for the past couple of years just to put on a happy face while in public with my boyfriend.
Why do we do that?  Of course now, I think that was so stupid and immature and petty and horrifically hateful of me.

So, yeah. We do nit pick at one another. He may leave clothes in the floor or look at the same dirty dishes for days on end like they're going to clean themselves. (And it would have to be him because I never do that... right?) We may get irritated with each other over something stupid and one of us (also, of course, not me...) may sit and pout for a couple hours on a Saturday morning.  He rolls over and snores/breathes in my face; I have been known to roll over and accidentally throw an elbow to his cheek/nose... But all of that stuff, that crap that really doesn't matter in the long run? That's all the absolute minority of interactions between the two of us.
Really, I feel incredibly blessed to have found the one person with whom I wish to spend the next 1039389021 days and months and years.  I feel so very lucky to be "SO YOUNG" and already wake up beside the person I'll be waking up beside when I'm old, wrinkly, and listening to our grandkids run around.  The honest truth is, I long for weekends not ONLY because I'm not working during that time, but because that is additional time  that I get to spend with him.  Whether we're doing anything or not, I'm perfectly content just sitting together. We have an amount of fun together that should be considered illegal. In fact, some times it may be... I'm kidding... sort of.

   What I guess I'm trying to say is, marriage is pretty awesome.  You should try it!
I love my husband more that I ever knew it was possible to love another person... ever. It's actually a pretty incredible feeling.

Yes, today's pictures are from us @Halloween... we were a S'more. 

Gag, ick, so cheesy, I know.  Sounds like somebody's just jealous. 

26. Get current on Criminal Minds Season 5- and SNOW DAY!

Last night it snowed 4-5 inches, which means SNOOOOOW DAY!

Snow day means watch DVDs of stuff all day! Which means we finished Season 5 of Criminal Minds.  Now I can check #26 off... YESSSS! :-)
(If you would like to see the rest of my 101 in 1001, click here)

AND we made a snow man & snow cream! Today has been super fantastical!

 The girls also enjoyed themselves... See? If they aren't the most precious things ever, I just don't know what could be!

Lazy Sunday

Today is a lazy day. We haven't had one of these in a while.

I think I'll try to do a quick little update on the past week or two!

SO Last weekend we were in Atlanta. The Packers played the Falcons at the Georgia Dome and we went down there Friday - Monday. It was some of the bestest fun I've had with my hubby and our kiddos in a while!

We drank a lot of this:

The girls went with us, and lounged around our room...

It must be SO HARD to have their life. :)

On Friday we got there and walked to the closest pub for dinner- it was ridiculous!! The food was a really strange combo of stuff that went perfectly together! Meehan's Pub had a "Holiday Hangover" menu that was only non-holiday food, so it was a pleasant surprise!

Saturday we decided to take 3 hours to find IKEA (I was not impressed. There were 79023281 people in there and you couldn't even take a deep breath without hitting someone. Maybe next time it won't be

so crowded and I'll see what all the fuss is about?) and then ate lunch at The Vortex. Good burger, great atmosphere. We then came back to our hotel to find that our room hadn't been cleaned yet, so we went for about a 13982 hour walk. Only to come back to see that they STILL hadn't gotten to us! Seriously? It was almost 5. DidI mention that we didn't take coats/jackets? Because it was supposed to be kind of warm all weekend. It was not that warm. In fact, it was down right FREEZING at times!

Saturday night, we met some of the people we had met on Friday night (the city was overrun with Packers

fans... it was like we were in Wisconsin!!) And hung out at the pub, then followed them to a 24-hour karaoke bar where they proceeded in drinking until 3 the night before the game... Don't worry, they're PROS. After we left the bar, we heard that one of the guys tackled the Karaoke machine and they were asked to leave. Not to mention they were yelling "FREE BEER! FREE BEER FOR ALL PACKERS FANS!" into the karaoke machine which plays on the street. hahaha They were so much fun, it was like we were with family or something!

SUNDAY SUNDAY SUNDAY!

We got up (sloooowly), had breakfast in our

hotel and saw all the other Pack fans, and started our 1 mile trek to the stadium. Everyone had already beat us to tailgating (granted, we had nothing with which to tailgate), so we walked around and watched the crazies.

We then made our way into the game and it was SO MUCH FUN! This was our first Packers game... and it was a good one to attend. I just wish it would have ended with our team having the higher score.

This is the view from our seats. Not too bad, but not the best. Next time I'll pay the extra and we'll be MUCH CLOSER.

That's about all I got. Pretty boring post, I know, as I have nothing really witty to say today... but there's all the pictures from my phone that I took on our trip! :)

OoPs! THanks Days 7-13!

So, We all know how wonderful I am at remembering to blog frequently... Right.

Here are my days 7-13 of Thankfulness!

7- I'm thankful for my parents and the fact that they would do anything for me to see me happy.

8. I'm thankful to have such a loving and gracious savior who loves me despite my almost moment-by-moment downfalls.

9. I am thankful to have friends who send me uplifting text messages or emails at just the right moment- without even knowing how they brighten my day.

10. I am thankful for my health. This one's difficult, as that's a day-to-day kind of thing with me. But- I am healthy and able to do the majority of things I want to do without issue, and for that I am thankful.

11. I am thankful for my freedom. So many people have given so much for me to be able to complete school, attend college, have a job, and live my daily life without constant fear of mortar attacks... or without seeing armed guards at every corner. I am thankful to the soldiers who have fought and given the ultimate sacrifice in order to ensure that I live this way.

12. I have today off... and for that, I am INCREDIBLY THANKFUL! :)

13. I am thankful to have clothes to keep me warm. I get up every day and lament that "I have NOTHING TO WEAR!" Then resolve to just go to work in my bathrobe, and give up on life because I don't like to wear the same thing over and over. The reality of it is, I have more than enough. I have plenty more than the majority of people with whom I work, yet I whine about it daily.

Maybe I'll do better with the next few.

SUCK DAY

I got bit by a dog today. What kind of dog, you ask?

It could have been a big, "scary" Rott or Pit or Doberman or Chow.

It could have been a nice family dog, like a boxer, heeler, or a golden.

It also could have been a precious little fluff ball like a Martini dog or Pompom.

NO.

It

Was

A

Chihuahua-Weener Mix.

It almost made a chiweenie-sized hole in the wall, as I contemplated punting that little dog through the dining room.

But I was the bigger person (both literally and figuratively) and just yelped loudly and tried not to cry, as it got a good piece of skin.

I then laughed as it's momma chased it through the house with a fly-swatter.

Stupid dog.

♥ Emily

Because no blog is complete without a pHOto...

This is the barn at my great grandmother's house. Mom and I went up there a few weeks ago. She's currently in the hospital bc she had a really bad infection and her son wouldn't take her to the Dr... so her great nephew had to take her to the ER where they found out that her infection was incredibly worse than they thought and they have forced her to stay since then. She's 96. And still 100% Fireball! ♥