Hide the cookies, hide the chips...

... 'cause I've been eating everything up in here!

I am not sure what it is but ever since I got back from Boston I simply can not stop eating. While we were in Boston, I will admit that I did not eat well at all and even packed on a few fried food lb's... but come on- it's vacation! I'm not sure if I was pinched by the foodie fairy or what but it has to stop, real fast.

I have subbed everyday for the past two weeks so I'm not actually sitting around just feasting all day. But, I do find myself searching for snacks or lil' bites of things here and there during the day. The worst is when I get home from work at like 4. When I don't sub I usually eat lunch later in the afternoon... around 1 or 2.  Maybe having a scheduled lunch at noon is a contributing factor in all of this- who knows?!

 It's all a lil' weird for me because for the most part I am a really healthy eater. I cook our meals from scratch and tend to overload on the veggies. I must have tossed that idea out the window at some point within the last 14 days. I actually thing that sometimes Gregorian gets bored with all the "clean & healthy" food that we eat. But oh well, I'm the cook in this household.

The most frustrating part is that I'm not just snacking on junk food. I've been snacking on everything. Cottage cheese... sure! Yogurt... you bet!  Fruit... why not! Baby-bell laughing cow cheeses... absolutely! The list goes on... and on. The list could be much worse if I actually bought real junk food when I go grocery shopping. So, I can't even blame this on having a temporary sweet tooth.

It's time to buckle down on this snacking before I can't buckle my belt. UGH!

Happy Crafting: iPlanner

I am a self proclaimed organizationaholic! I have a smart phone where I keep an up-to-date task list as well as my calendar fully stocked with alarms set as reminders, separate calendars icons for birthdays, work and general. I even have my pantry and linen closet organized and labeled as to where things go. I know- I'm weird.

We also have a calendar that is hanging on our fridge with all of the things that we have planned on it along with post-it notes with things that I would like to plan for each month. Like... going to dinner & using a coupon that will expire that month, going to see a movie that is out and some times even planning trips to visit friends that we have that are out of town. This helps me to put some things into a generic timeline and most of the time we get around to doing a few things on the lists. 

Now, for my third organization and planning tool and today's Happy Crafting project...

A customized planner, because it is customized let's refer to it as the iPlanner. 

I went to an office supply story and picked up a small monthly planner. I bought this one for $3.00 and I'm sure that you could find them anywhere for under $5.00. The key to this project is getting a planner that has the removable plastic cover. 

Then I ransacked my crafting supplies and found what I'd need for this crafty project. The orange circle stencil thing and the lil' circle contraption are the best things I'd bought for scrap booking, card making and other random crafting purposes such as this one. Together they cut perfect circles and it makes a crafters life so much easier! You can also get the stencils in different shapes and styles of alphabet letters and use the lil' circle contraption to cut out those shapes too. I would recommend it to any crafter. 

After I found my materials I wanted to use. I took the planner I bought out of its plastic cover, measured my choice of paper up to it, cut it out and began personalize it.

Keep in mind when you are measuring to cut the new paper using the original planner as a template you need to wrap your new paper around to take the measurement before you cut. Because the planner is thicker when it is folded you need to take measurement when it is folded. If you open the planner flat and trace it, when you cut it and wrap it around the original planner the edges will stick out because it is not long enough.

I used my circle cutter to cut out a picture of Gregorian and I and I also stuck a Life is good sticker on there. I have had this sticker on my planner for the past 2 years and I love it.

After you have finished putting your iPlanner together you just slide it into the plastic cover. First the new cover that you have made  and then the old planner.

... WAAA LAAAA! You are done. Let the planning begin! 

HAPPY CRAFTING!

PAAAAK YA CAH IN HAHVAAD YAD!

Long time no post, my bad! But last week I was bit by the travel bug and took a lil' trip to Boston with three of my friends. My numero uno amiga, Amy, is looking at going to graduate school there and I was lucky enough to get to tag along. 

Our hotel was still decked out in Christmas decor, it looked so beautiful! The decorations defiantly match up to the hotels 4 star rating. 

We had such a wonderful, yet chilly, weekend!  There was so much snow! The East Coast was hit hard with a huge storm 2 days before we got there. 

I am a lil' bit of a history buff so I was very excited to soak in some of the historic sites in good old Beantown. We didn't get to walk the entire Freedom Trail because it was so cold and most of it was coved by huge amounts of snow. But, we did get to see most of the important stops along the trail. 

Walkin' on the Freedom Trail. A 2 and a half mile trail that is marked by red bricks or a painted red line in some places.

Paul Revere's house where he lived with his 16, thats right 16, children. 

The USS Constitution, also known as "Old Ironsides" because cannon balls seemed to just bounce off her sides during battle. 

The Old Massachusetts State House. If you look to the right on this picture you can see the street light in the road.. that is the site of the Boston Massacre. 

The New Massachusetts State House and by new I mean it was built in 1798.

Sam Adams Statue and Faneuil Hall, which is also know as The Cradle of Liberty.  A lot of meetings and speeches took place in this place during revolutionary times.

Paul Revere's statue which is in front of Old North Church, where he hung the lanterns before he went on his famous midnight ride. 

Along with being a history buff while in Boston... I got to be a total tourist and it was wonderful! There is a lot to see in this city but, I think that we hit the main hotspots. By the end of the first day we started to take pictures of each other almost as if we were running an assembly line. We would each swap cameras...snap the photo and then rotate, like a tag-team match. I'm sure if you compare all of the pics from our 4 cameras they are 90% the same background, just with another person in the picture. Either way- it was very efficient! 

We took a hop-on, hop-off trolly tour to see the highlights of the city and that is just what we did! 

Sometimes you gotta' go where everybody knows your name... and we did. We stopped for some lunch at the Cheers bar. I got clam chowder and it was delish! 

Fenway Paaaak, home of the Bosox!

Took a detour to Cambridge to walk around Harvard. This picture is taken from the top of the library steps. The campus is so beautiful when it's all snow covered! 

The John Harvard's statue, too bad he is wearing a snow blanket. Fun fact about this statue is that the face really is not John Harvard's. The face on this statue is an art student who sat for the sculpting. There aren't any picture of John Harvard... so what he really looked like is a mystery. Dunnn, dunnnn, duuhhhhhhh! 

Another picture of Harvard. I think these buildings are classrooms... 

Ohh, a highlight of the trip... Samuel Adams brewery tour! It was actually a lot smaller than I thought it would be. But, they mostly produce beer specifically for the tours and a few local pubs. We got to taste three different beers and they were very yummy... and free, so even better! 

I love traveling to places where there are so many different things to do. If you are looking for a nice place to go for a long weekend, I suggest Boston. There is good food, friendly people and things to fill up your days with out spending a ton of money. 

Getting away for this past weekend has started my wheels turning for my next trip, this time I think I'll take Gregorian. I really missed him! Any suggestions....? 

Drunk at the dentist.

I have never had a problem going to the dentist. My chompers always get a clean bill of health and I take pride in having good oral hygiene. Last month I went to the dentist for my regular check up and it did not go as well as ones in the past. 

You see, when I was 12 or 13, two of my molars got chipped when I was hit in my mouth playing softball. So I had to get them bonded... which is when they take the white cavity filling and use that to fill in the chipped part of your tooth. But, the dentist that did the repair didn't do such a swell job. He didn't exactly fill the chip, he more so just put a band-aid over the chip in my teeth. Worse yet- he bonded the two chips with the same band-aid. So, one side of my teeth were basically connected. Worked well, until now!

Ok, back to my last dentist check visit. I found myself in cringing in discomfort when they took that pokey tool and tapped on the place where my chip was fixed for the cavity check. It was awful! I knew something was up because I have never had mouth pain before. The dentist noticed also that I was contorting my legs and digging my nails into the arms of the chair when he tapped on these teeth. A full mouth x-ray came next and then I saw it- a tiny dark grey cloudy spot staring at me. Right there on my very own, once cavity free chompers. DUD! The only thing that soothed the cavity heartbreak was that the dentist told me that there was nothing I could have done to prevent this from happening. The cavity was in between the teeth and under the bonding band aid that fixed my chipped teeth when I was younger. 

Mr. Dentist told me that I would need to come back and have the cavity filled. In order for them to fill it they would have to remove the bonding. OUCH! I also am scared of needles... like terrified. My stomach already started to churn and I actually thought I might start to cry. I pulled myself together, explained my needle-a-phobia and he wrote me a prescription for some anti-anxiety pills. He said I wouldn't remember even being there and that I would experience no pain. I liked what I was hearing and that helped to turn my frown upside down. 

Now the fun part of this entire saga. A week later I took the pills an hour before my visit as instructed and started to feel loopy after about 20 minutes. My sister-in-law, Sara, was my token driver for the afternoon... and thank God she was there. 

Got to the office and everything was great. Don't remember a single thing about them fixing my teeth or talking to anyone. Heck- I don't even remember getting there. Oops! After this dentist appointment I understand how David felt when he left the dentist. 

I came home and slept like a baby for about 6 hours and then woke up a little out of it. I might as well have been knocked over the head with a frying pan. When I woke up things just felt a little fuzzy and it took a while for me to piece things together. I started talking to Greg about his day and he asked me about the dentist. I told him how I thought it went and he laughed about how I couldn't remember a thing. I went to get my phone from my purse and also noticed that I had taken 6 little sample packets of gum from the dentist office's receptionist desk and, the real kicker.... 9 chapsticks! (There are only 5 in the picture because went I went to take the picture for the blog this was all I could find and 1 of the original 9 Kelso had for a snack.) 

To top it all off I over paid for this dentist visit by about $300.00! I needed to pay like $68 and according to my receipt statement I paid way, way more. Awesome job, Jamie! I also later found out from my sister-in-law that I counted out $27 in singles and might have given them a few bucks in loose change. My bad! 

And there you have it.... I got drunk at the dentist. 

There were three in the bed.

And the two people who should sleep in the bed were slowly getting pushed out.

You see... we went out of town for Christmas and for the last few days before we left we (by we I mean I) let Kelso sleep in the bed with us at night. I felt guilty for leaving him and I thought that by the time we came back he would have forgotten about it and would just sleep on his dog bed, no problem. Man, was I wrong!

Kelso can not get enough of the bed. I can't say that I blame him... tempurpedic mattress, down comforter and egyptian cotton sheets. What's not to love? But 60 pound Kelso does not just just curl up in a cute lil ball at the foot of the bed and zonk out. No, no, no... he is up down, up down, roll over, walk in circles, lay down, get up, in between you, licking your face, on your pillow... over and over again. Not to mention that when you get up in the morning he has taken over more than half of the bed and Greg and I are smashed into one side and sharing a pillow.

Now we are trying to get him to sleep on his own bed again. It has been a nightmare to say the least. He just walks around the bed and cries... and cried... and cries. The other night it was so bad I got out of bed and came to the living room with him because Greg needed to get to sleep and we were at least an hour into the cry baby routine at this point. Even when we came out to the living room he was still crying and kept trying to get up on the couch with me. Eventually I gave up. I went to bed and Kelso had to sleep in his box. He was ok with that, he loves being in his box. But we want him to be out of the box at night, ya know... to be a big, bad guard dog.  So this cry baby junk has to stop!

I think tonight might be the lucky night. I can just feel it! Usually during the day Kelso will nap on his bed but today I put it in the closet so he hasn't been on it all day. I hope that he will be so happy to see it tonight and sleep time that he will just lay down and go to doggie dreamland.

Well, here's to hoping!

Happy Crafting: The Chair Project

We moved into our first home this past year and like most first time homeowners know... you're house just doesn't come together overnight. Our upstairs living room finally came together with the purchase of a few shelves and the gift of a chair. 

My sister was getting new furniture at her house and I called dibs on a chair that she had. This chair needed a lil' pick-me-up and so my creative wheels started turning- fast! I decided that I would recover the chair. I priced out fabric that we liked that I would use to cover it... but, in the end that fabric was just too expensive. Then, lightbulb! 

I remembered these curtains that I loved from World Market but, we didn't use in our living room because they didn't look good up against the wall color. The base colors were too similar. So, a trip to World Market and $75 dollars later and we were ready to begin, The Chair Project!

Here is the before...

First, I pulled out the staples and nails from the existing fabric that covered the chair. This helped me to understand how the new fabric would be attached to the frame of the chair. 

Pulling all those lil' buggers out took such a long time. I also found lots of fun things when the fabric came off like: chapstick, a sock of my nieces, some polly pockets and $1.87! 

*Note the towel that is under the chair. I would recommend putting something down so... 1. Your floors don't get messed up and 2. The staples/nails that you drop are caught in the same place. 

The hardest part of covering the chair were the arms. This chair had piping on the edge of it and so when I got to that point... I got stuck on how to cover that. I got stuck hard. I think I just stared at the chair for 2 days thinking of what to do. Then it clicked and after a trip to the fabric store we were back in business!

I bought a few yards of fabric piping. Which I found on spools in the "cut by the yard" ribbon section of my fabric store. Then to eliminate unnecessary sewing I used the tops of the curtains, where the curtain rod would normally go, and threaded the piping through. I pinned the piping to keep it snug and sewed a straight stitch running right next to it. 

After that it got easier... I figured out how to make all of the pieces. Now, I just needed to put them together. 

*Note, use a heavy duty staple gun to attach fabric. You will want the extra "punch" of the heavy duty staple gun to keep your fabric tight. Also, DO NOT be afraid of using too much fabric glue to hold fabric in place along with the staples. I used 2 bottles and the best part- it dries clear! 

One arm done... 

  

Almost there... 

To sew the "seat"of the chair I used 3 fabric pieces, one large piece for the middle and two smaller pieces for the sides. I laid the big piece of the fabric in the middle, pattern side down and tucked it into the back and sides of the "seat". Then I took two smaller pieces, one on each side (pattern side down) and pinned them around the curves of the seat. After it was all pinned, I took the fabric off turned it around to make sure it fit snuggly. Then I tucked and stapled the "seat" into place. 

Alright everyone... we are about to have the big reveal. Are you ready? 

TA-DAAAA!!! 

After finishing the chair I had extra fabric so I cut fabric, sewed it up, stuffed the pillow and then tufted it. I did this because I didn't want to waste the fabric and I thought it would be nice to pull the room together. The tufting was easy and it's a nice lil' touch on the ordinary throw pillow! 

I have never recovered anything before, so I didn't really have a particular order for doing any of it. I just let my creative mind run wild and in the end that worked out just fine! There is a great sense of accomplishment in completing this project. We also saved a lot of money by recovering this chair and using curtains as opposed to upholstery fabric. A chair brand new in a pattern fabric can be anywhere from $150- $400 bucks...yikes! 

I love, love, love the chair and it completes our living room perfectly! 

So, for all you happy crafters looking for a project... get yourself a chair! 

HAPPY CRAFTING! 

Words of Wisdom

Anyway 
by Mother Teresa

People are often unreasonable,
illogical, and self-centered;
Forgive them anyway.

If you are kind,
people may accuse you of selfish ulterior motives;
Be kind anyway.

If you are successful,
you will win some false friends and some true enemies;
Succeed anyway.

If you are honest and frank,
people may cheat you;
Be honest and frank anyway.

What you spend years building,
someone could destroy overnight.
Build anyway.

If you find serenity and happiness,
they may be jealous;
Be happy anyway.

The good you do today,
people will often forget tomorrow;
Do good anyway.

Give the world the best you have,
and it may never be enough;
Give the best you've got anyway.

You see, in the final analysis
it is between you and God;
it was never between you and them anyway.

I saw this poem printed in a classroom where I was subbing at the beginning of this school year and took a picture of it on my phone so I could have it. I recall thinking when I read it the first time, "Huh- this really makes sense". 

I recently stumbled upon it again while looking through the pictures on my phone and it seemed to connect perfectly with what my 2011 outlook on life is going to be.  I'm going to use these words from Mother Teresa to inspire me this new year. I am going to keep my head held high, always do what I feel is most valuable and be the best that I can be anyway. 

Well hello 2011, how are you?

In my head I would like to think that 2011 would answer, "AWESOME! I'm the best year ever!"ohh.. and it would be real nice if 2011 told me that I would also win the mega millions! Ahhh... whatta' dream!

Anyways...

HAPPY NEW YEAR! 

Just as great as it was to reminisce about the last year in my post a yesterday.  I am excited for all of the known as well as unknown things that 2011 has to offer. I have a good feeling about it.

As you know, new years also come with new year resolutions. This year might just be the first year that I actually came up with some resolutions before the middle of March. I am going to do my bestest and stick to my guns about the resolutions that I am going to make. I know that each of them are meant to make my life even better than it already is. So, this is what I've got...

1. Stop saying, "I'm sorry" for things that I don't need to apologize for. For instance when I don't get the the laundry put away.... big deal! That isn't something to apologize for. I am going to save these two little words, "I'm sorry", for when I actually need them.

2. Go to church at least three Sunday's a month. I have always been connected to my faith. I grew going to church every Sunday and went to private school for elementary through high school. I know that diving back into a church community will help me in keeping my head on straight and stay grounded in what I want out of life.

3. I'm going to floss my teeth every day. I have good & healthy chompers... but I know that this is something that I can add to my daily teeth routine that will make my mouth happier as well as my dentist.

4. I also am going to spend less money and start clipping coupons. With being a substitute teacher my paycheck changes every time. So, I am going to make the conscience effort to save more and spend less.

5. Find somewhere to volunteer. I love supporting charities and giving back. But, this year I want to commit to volunteering with an organization on a regular basis. I'm going to give myself until the end of January to get everything set up and movin' along with this one.

Well, friends- that is what I have come up with to help better my 2011. What are your new years resolutions?