Measure Once, Cut Twice

Day 21: My favorite posts

May 21, 2013 Topic of the Day:

A list of links to your favorite posts in your archives.

This was the post that first gained my blog attention. John whipped this together while I was on a work trip and everyone fell in love with it. Over a year later, it continues to be the pin that brings the most traffic to my website and was the reason why I switched my blog from a simple little family blog to Measure Once, Cut Twice. I have since moved and re-did the look of it. Someday when my craft room is ready, I'll re-reveal my new desk!

DIY Chevron Print Guitar {using vinyl}

I loved this project because John and I worked really hard on it together and used teamwork to get the vinyl applied perfectly. I had a boring black electric guitar that I decided needed to be jazzed up a bit. What's a better way than covering it in vinyl?!

'Stache Bash

I loved putting this little 'Stache Bash together. It was so fun trying to come up with ways to incorporate mustaches into the party. I'm kind of in love with the colors in the pictures as well.

Life's Little Lessons, Learned the Hard Way

This post just cracks me up. It reminds me of all of the stupid mistakes we made as new homeowners. What were we thinking painting our spare room this color? Who in their right minds guts an entire bathroom with no pre-planning? Check it out to see what other brilliant decisions we made...

Sow the Seeds of Love

This was another favorite project I worked on because it was the first wedding that someone hired me to decorate for. It was a sunflower themed wedding and I really wanted to make them something special to put at the greeting table. I had fun gathering the craft supplies that I had on-hand to create this canvas.

P.S. Did you know that it's easy to look back into my archives? Check out the "Post Topics" right underneath my picture in the left sidebar. They are categorized by topic to make it easier for you!

DIY Washi Tape Letter

I am a washi tape hoarder. I purchase it, but never use it. I'm always so hesitant because I don't want to "waste" it.

So today I finally found a legit reason to use it.

Ready for the easiest craft in the world?

This is my washi tape stash. So bright and cheery!

This is an H that I bought from Michael's well over a year ago. I never knew what to do with it and I didn't want to waste it on something ugly.
Enter... my washi tape collection. Just tape strips of different colors on, use an X-ACTO knife to clean up the rounded edges and you're done!
Told you it was easy. Happy Monday!

5/19 Sunday Social

1. What is your favorite kind of surprise? One that I didn't know was coming. Wait, isn't that the definition of surprise? Well usually I know when a surprise should be taking place. Like my birthday, Christmas, etc. I love when John surprises me with presents that I didn't even know I wanted. Like two pink tool boxes for Valentine's Day? Greatest surprise ever considering we "agreed" not to get each other anything.
2. Flowers or Chocolate? I haven't gotten flowers in years. Why? Because after getting about 80 {exaggerating} bouquets within the first 6 months of us dating, I told John to stop wasting money on flowers. I told him to save up to buy me purses instead. And that he did. I have so many purses now, it's ridiculous. So, hence my theory that flowers are a waste of money... I'd rather have chocolate.
3. What is your favorite summertime activity? Hmm. I'm not big into summer because I hate being hot. I also am not thrilled with the outdoors. I'm going to break out my beach cruiser this year and hopefully participate in some community events like the farmers market and movie nights downtown, so maybe one of those will become my new favorite summertime activity.
4. Do you have any vacations planned this Summer? We have a weekend planned in Lake Tahoe to see Rascal Flatts & The Band Perry. That doesn't really count as a real vacation though because we have a cabin there so we can go whenever we want. Other than that... no not really. As long as I get a few PTO days off work that's all I care about.
5. Favorite Summer Holiday? Our dating anniversary is on July 7th and our wedding anniversary is on July 1st. Boy, do I look forward to July. Our 10th dating anniversary {and 2nd wedding} is coming up and I am SO looking forward to that present. TEN years? Come on. I deserve something great for that!
6. Dream Vacation? I'm really intrigued by the Atlantis resort in the Bahamas. We were trying to go there on our honeymoon, but the rooms were all booked up. I would LOVE to visit someday.
I hope you are having a wonderful weekend!

Circus Party Ideas

I've mentioned before that we like to throw each other birthday parties at work. One of our employees went to Reno to celebrate his 30th birthday and mentioned that he was going to stay at Circus Circus. So naturally, that became the theme of his "party". And by party I mean that I made the three things in the image above.

I made cupcakes and stuck little clown cupcake toppers in them. I found these toppers at Marshall's a while back, so they were perfect. I also had blue and yellow striped nut cups on hand in my nut cup stash {ya, that's a thing}. I grabbed some animal crackers from Target and filled them up.

I couldn't pass up the perfect opportunity to make him a "30 Blows" present. I got the container from the Target dollar section and put a block of styrofoam in it. Blow Pops come in packs at Target as well, so I just stuffed 30 of them into the styrofoam. I made the tag using drawing pens on my Silhouette and wrapped it around with red and white twine.

Do you know anyone with a major birthday coming up? Try making them your own version of this!

Friday Favorites: Mason Jar Meals

Summer is right around the corner and mason jars are all the rage. At our house we've started incorporating mason jars into our dinner parties by serving lemonade and root beer floats in them. I'm seriously considering hosting a Memorial Day party {I should probably make that decision soon.} and really want to incorporate mason jars into the theme.

For today's Friday Favorites, I've gathered a list of drinks, salads, main courses and desserts all packed into mason jars. These jars are cheap, reusable and, best of all, dishwasher safe!

It's Thursday again, so that means I'm linking up with Carolina Fireflies and Pretty Living PDX for their Three Things Thursday link party.

Today's topic is 3 of my all time favorite quotes.

I just posted my favorite quote the other day as part of my #blogeverydayinmay post, but there are tons of great quotes, so I'm totally on board with doing this again.

This is on the desktop of my computer at work. As I face my daily challenge of being a successful woman in a man's industry, I glance at this quote and remind myself that they are just intimidated.

That's my story and I'm sticking to it :)

This is the quote that is on the desktop of my laptop at home. It gives me inspiration to stay up late and work on this blog, to sign up for craft fairs, to someday open my own shop.

This is a quote from my girl Carrie Underwood. I literally listen to this song over and over again driving home from work sometimes. It's off the Blown Away CD and is called "Nobody Ever Told You". I saw her and Hunter Hayes in concert twice on that tour, so I'm kind of obsessed.

Happy Thursday everyone... we're almost there!

Day 15: A Day in the Life

May 15, 2013 Topic of the Day:

A Day in the life

7:00 Wake up on my 5th alarm and lay in bed reading and responding to any urgent work emails. I should probably pretend that I wake up earlier than this in case anyone from my work sees this. However, I'm not going to since I am legitimately reading work emails from the second I wake up in the morning until the time I go to bed at night. This is when I make a purchase from Pick Your Plum if applicable that day. Then I rush to get ready so that I can attempt to be at work on time.

8:00 Drive to work. My neighborhood is surrounded by a golf course and I'm always so impressed with people who are out being active so early in the morning. I just can't get over this view.

8:00am to 5:00pm

{usually more like 8:30 to 6:00}

Work, work, work all day long. This is my office where it all goes down. I have about a million people coming to me for about two million things per day. It's really ridiculously stressful and I clench my teeth all night thinking about it.

But it's pink, so that's fun, right?

6:00 Dinner and TV time. We usually watch a TV show while we eat. I end up laying on the couch with the little dog in my lap soon after that.

7:00

At some point I get my butt up and do the dishes.

{John cooks, I clean.}

Then I end up either replacing the dog in the picture above with my laptop on the couch or go in my craft room to blog and work on projects. My craft room is literally 5 steps from the couch, so it's kind of like I'm spending time with John, minus the watching sports aspect of it.

10:00

Bed time routine. Here's a sneak peek of my bathroom. It consists of huge ugly brown curtains that we have yet to change out, along with a gold shower door that I need to figure out how to spray paint.

10:30

In my big heavenly bed. John usually falls right to sleep and I catch up on my social media from the day.

And repeat.

Day 14: 10 Things that make me REALLY happy

May 14, 2013 Topic of the Day:

Ten things that make you really happy.

1. my husband

2. food

If I'm in a bad mood, my favorite foods will make me snap out of it right away. Pancakes, ice cream, raw cookie dough and many many more. John knows this best.

3. presents

{This is me crying over my Louis Vuitton on Christmas.}

4. my dogs

Modok in his purse

Fifi and all of her limbs

5. Kristen Wiig as the Target Lady on SNL

{if you haven't seen this, you HAVE to watch it!}

{bare with me through the commercial}

6. e-cards

{some are just so applicable to my life!}

7. music

Cranking Taylor Swift's first album driving down the freeway with the sunroof open.

8. Home Goods

I get butterflies when I walk into this store. Seriously, it's such a treat when we go there {since it is 2 hours away} and makes me SO happy every time.

9. crossing things off my to-do list

I'm obsessed with lists. Sometimes I make lists of things that I need to do just to cross them off. I didn't need the reminder, just the joy of running the pen across the paper.

10. giving

I love giving things to people. I love seeing their face light up as they open a present that they weren't expecting to get. Sometimes this means I get a little carried away, but it is just so rewarding to me.

Laundry Room Sign Tutorial

Happy Monday to you! I hope you had a great Mother's Day yesterday. We hosted dinner for nine including John's Mom and Grandma. I haven't shared this yet, but we made a dining room table for our new house and tonight was the first time we completely filled all of the seats. It was a tight squeeze, but we confirmed that ten people would easily be able to fit around our table! I sort of live for hosting dinner parties, so I'm super excited about this. {My Facebook page has a sneak peek picture of the table in the cover photo.}
So today I'm sharing some crafts that I made directly based off of some ideas I saw on Pinterest. Not too original, but I tried to put my own spin on these fairly simple ideas. The original "Seeking Sole Mates" idea can be found here. However, instead of using wire and canvas, I glued clothespins to wood.

This project was really really easy. I used acrylic paint, which dries super fast so this project took me like 30 mins to do. The hardest part was cutting the vinyl {which isn't hard at all}. Start by painting your board {or canvas} completely with the color that you want your letters. Then apply vinyl letters and cover everything with the color that you want most of the board to be. Wait for the top coat to dry and then peel off your vinyl.

Since I did two layers on wood, I was able to sand down the top coat of white to expose the yellow I had painted underneath. The clothespins are just glued along the bottom of the sign to hang my socks on. Not shown- I used a picture hanger to hang this on the wall.

Here is the final project again. Such a great addition to our laundry room {closet}!

Original idea can be found here.

While I was at it, I decided we needed a trash can in the closet for lint, dryer sheets, garbage, etc. I had this paint bucket that I bought from the Home Depot a while ago and just threw some vinyl on there.

The fact that I got these two projects done this weekend means I'm almost ready to do my laundry closet reveal!