This is The Life {$1 Wooden Sign}

About a month ago I was over at Nester's blog and I saw her post she did about the sign she had on her mantel. I loved it! I wanted it! I must have it!

Nester found out that the sign is made by an Etsy shop called Go Jump in the Lake. I was excited and went right over but to my shock the sign is $125! I don't have an extra $125 to spend on this sign. Plus, there is no way I could convince Matt that this was a logical expense. Sad!

Fast forward a few weeks and Matt started working on Levi's bed. He bought a huge piece of mdf wood for the trundle bed and there were some pieces left over. My excitement returned as my wheels started turning. The pieces that were left over would make the perfect sized sign.

So here's how I made my sign.

Click on each picture to see closer

First, I had to glue the two pieces of mdf together to get the size I wanted. I wanted a 30 x 30 sign.


In the above picture the two pieces of wood are already glued together and I covered the line with wood putty and some other junk my husband had in the garage.

Step one and two complete!


I then painted two coats of white semi-gloss paint on the board and let that dry for a few hours. I skipped the primer because we didn't have any and I knew I was going to be painting over the white with black. I wanted the words to all line up so I measured a two inch border around the whole piece. That is what the arrows are pointing to.

Step 3 and 4 done!


I then went to the computer and played around with the sizing of the letters I wanted. Once I got the size I wanted I printed them out on cardstock and cut the out. I then traced the letters on to contact paper and cut them out. The contact paper letters are the ones I used.

*Note* If you do have some sort of vinyl cutting machine then you can make this so much easier. But I don't have one so I have to do this the long way.

Step 5 done!

I put the letters on the board exactly where I wanted them using my border as a guide.


I then painted two coats of white semi-gloss paint over the letters. Why? Because I wanted the letters to be stuck to the board so that when I painted the board black there wasn't any paint that seeped through. The white paint "glued" the letters down for me.


Once the white paint was dry I painted two coats of black over the letters. This is one paint project that I didn't care if the paint was perfect since I wanted some of the white to show through the black.



Steps 6 7 8 done!

After the black paint dried for a long time I used a knife to pry up the contact paper letters. Now the white lettering shows through. Perfect!


But it was a little too perfect for what I wanted. So I took some sandpaper to the sign. Let me tell you, I've never intentionally destroyed a project so I was very nervous about this part.

But overall I'm pleased with how it turned out. I may take some more sandpaper to it to bring out the white under the black. I want it to have a worn look to it. You can't tell in the pictures probably but the letters are more "roughed up" than what they look.




Steps 9 and 10 done!

I think this will be part of my summer mantel in a few months. And this only cost me $1 for the contact paper from Dollar Tree. I love it!!

*Please visit Go Jump in the Lake. They have great signs available for purchase. I just couldn't afford the one I wanted.*

Linking up to:
Christina's Adventures
The Shabby Creek Cottage
Cheap Crafty Mama
Someday Crafts
Savy Southern Style
Domestically Speaking

Spring has Sprung! {My Spring mantel}

After I took down our Christmas decorations (the day after Christmas) I needed green in my life. Even though it was still December I was ready for Spring. Here in Texas our winter has been really crappy. We've had maybe just a few snow flakes. Wimpy wimpy!!

So I skipped winter and went straight to Spring. Here is my Spring mantel that has been up since December.

Click on each picture to see closer.






You want details? Ok!

All of the pitchers I found at Goodwill in one single trip. Lucky day I guess! I spray painted them white.

The plate with the number 5 on it is from Dollar Tree which I already had. I printed out the number 5 on my laser printer and cut it out. A little bit of tape later and it was done. I chose the number 5 because there will be 5 people in our family soon enough.

The flowers in the pitchers are from Dollar Tree as well. I think I spent about $10 total for the flowers. That's not bad since at Hobby Lobby it would have cost me twice that probably for flowers.

The placemats are from Ikea. I have really come to have a love for Ikea lately. The store is right by my doctor's office and the last few appointments I've been stopping in to explore. I think it would be dangerous if that store was any closer.

The candlestick holders and "nests" are from Hobby Lobby. I painted the candlesticks white as well. The "nests" are the grapevine wreaths stacked on top of each other with some reindeer moss shoved in there.

I would still like to find two tiny pitchers to fill in the blank space in the center but I haven't had any luck yet at Goodwill.

So there you have it! Spring has sprung here!!

Where have I been?

These last few weeks have been so busy! There are so many projects to finish up before baby gets here. Some days it seems as if the time left just drags on and on and on. Then other days it goes by so fast and I'm just left thinking to myself, "Holy cow. Only a little time is left!!"

I went to the dr this past Friday and everything sounds good. I go back in two more weeks and then I start going every week. Baby is so active all the time. Sometimes it's right when I want to sleep he decides it's party time! Ugh! That's just annoying!

Since my last post we celebrated Jaxon's 2nd birthday. He's such a big boy! I gave him his first hair cut too! That really made him look older. I have so many pictures that I need to post and pictures of projects we have completed too. I still need to post pictures from Levi's birthday and Christmas. I've said it before that I keep this blog as a journal for myself as well and it seems I've slacked off a bit here lately.

I think we have the baby names narrowed down to two but who knows for sure. This might be one of those situations where we have to see the baby before we can give him a name that is set in stone. I'm super excited to meet this baby though. I love him so much and just want to hold him in my arms.

Come back soon for pictures galore on the kids and the projects we've completed.

Shine! 2012 YW Theme

I was recently called to be the 1st counselor in the Young Women's presidency at church. I am loving this calling! I told Matt that maybe this is Heavenly Father's way of letting me have daughters since I don't have any of my own...yet!

One of my first assignments was the New Beginnings program. My wheels started turning and of course I turned to Pinterest for ideas. Every year the girls are given a gift from the Presidency. I found Desiree over at The 36th Avenue that came up with an amazing idea for her Young Women. I showed this to our YW President and she loved it except we decided to do bracelets instead.

The theme for 2012 is "Arise and Shine Forth" so I decided to put "shine" and "2012" on each washer.

So I got to work!

You can click each picture to see closer.

I purchased these washers at Lowes. The two bags cost about $6 total.



I used this stamp kit that one of our other members of the presidency already had. I followed Desiree's instructions and laid the washers on our garage floor. I hit each number and letter about 3-4 times each with a hammer.










This is what the washers looked like when I finished. I took a Sharpie marker and filled in the numbers and letters.



I found some cute charms at Michaels and added those for color. The chains I purchased at Walmart for $3 each. I was able to make several bracelets out of one chain. I made 24 total bracelets though.

Here are the finished bracelets. I love them! Each one is unique in its own way just like each of the Young Women.



Each bracelet cost about $1.50 each to make and for 24 that's pretty stinkin' cheap! I hope the girls love them!

I'm 28 weeks!! {Rutabaga}

I'm now carrying a rutabaga?!? What the heck is that? I have no clue that's for sure! But I guess that is the size of baby now.

Since my last post about the baby we found out that we are NOT having a girl as we thought. I had a sono at 20 weeks and this baby is for sure a boy! I will admit that I was really REALLY sad at first. We really had our hopes up that we were finally getting our baby girl. But it is not up to us what we get. Heavenly Father sends us what we are supposed to have and I know that!

After crying for a day I got over it and I am so thankful just to have a healthy and strong child.

The only problem with having another boy is that we have no name. When Matt and I got married we picked out 2 girls names and 2 boys names. That was the plan of how our children were supposed to go. So we're working on finding the perfect name that feels and fits just right.

I started breaking out in hives at night while I sleep. That's just annoying! This happened with the other two pregnancies at the exact same time. I take 2 Benedryl pills every night so that I don't get these huge welts all over. Towards the very end of my pregnancy this allergy goes away. Strange! And it only happens while pregnant! My body is so weird!

I have been horrible at taking pictures along the way. It doesn't help when you have two other kids that you're chasing around. But here is a picture of me two weeks ago at around 26 weeks. We were in a hurry to leave before church so I'm sorry for the blurry pictures.

Laundry room quote

I have been busy working on the laundry room re-do. It looks like a totally different room for sure. While it's not the laundry room of my dreams it is 10 million times better than it was before. One of the little touches I put in there was this quote:



This quote is so true in our house! With two little boys and another on the way I am constantly doing laundry.

I made this in Microsoft Publisher and printed it out on regular paper. It took all of about 20 minutes to make.

If you would like this for yourself then leave your email address in the comments and I can send it to you.

Here are a few more with different backgrounds

Chicken Spaghetti {Yum!}

My husband is not a fan of chicken spaghetti. Except for this recipe. It's the only recipe that I have made in our 7 years of marriage. I figured if he likes it why do I need to find something different?!? I can't remember what magazine I ripped the page out of that I have in my recipe book so I won't take credit for this.

It's seriously that good! Enjoy!

Printable version

1 lb thin spaghetti
1 can (12 oz) canned chicken
2 cans cream of mushroom soup
2 ½ cups shredded Cheddar
1 small onion, finely diced (optional)
¼ cup finely diced green bell pepper, drained (optional)
1 jar (4 oz) diced pimientos, drained (optional)
1 tsp seasoned salt
black pepper to taste
⅛ to ¼ tsp cayenne pepper, to taste

Heat oven to 400 degrees. Boil spaghetti noodles until they are soft. Save 2 cups of the water used to boil the noodles. Place the cooked spaghetti in a sprayed 9 x 13 dish.

Add the cream of mushroom soup and 2 cups of the shredded Cheddar. Then add the onion, green pepper and pimiento if you are using those ingredients. Add the seasoned salt, black pepper and cayenne pepper. Take it easy on the cayenne if you can’t handle the heat.

Add the canned chicken and 2 cups of broth. Stir together well, then taste to check the seasonings.

Top with the remaining ½ cup of Cheddar. Bake for 30 minutes or until bubbly. Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese if desired.

I do not add the onion, green bell pepper or pimientos and it still tastes so yummy! I also add 1/4 tsp of cayenne and the spaghetti isn't too hot for my 4 and 2 year old.