Measure Once, Cut Twice

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!

5/12 Sunday Social

1. 1 year ago I was doing ….

2012, Age 23:

This was the year that we were determined to pay off all of our debt. My student loans came due at the beginning of the year and we owed money on a car that I bought the year before. We went into ultra-saving mode and saved over 50% of our net paychecks. Not only did we pay off all of the debt in 8 months, but we also ended up with a lot in savings. Good thing we did that, because little did we know that we'd be selling our house and looking to buy a new one by the end of 2012!

2. 5 years ago I was doing ….

2008, Age 19:

Finishing my second year of college and only 4 classes away from earning my Bachelor's in Business Management {I got that information from FB}. I was still living at home, working for the meter company, babysitting for multiple families and apparently being really skinny.

3. 10 years ago I was doing….

2003, Age 14:

John and I started dating in July. We pretty much spent every day together that summer with two of our best friends. This picture sums up the year 2003 for us. You won't understand, but we turned his Dad's garage into our main hang out and had so much fun.

4. 1 year from now Ill be doing…

2014, Age 25:

John will be finishing his student teaching and will hopefully have a teaching job lined up for the following school year. I'm probably going to be doing the same thing as I am now {working, crafting, nothing} but I will admit that there will probably be more talk of a certain 4 letter word around our house...

5. 5 years ago ill be doing….

2018, Age 29:

We'll have two children and John will have his dream teaching job. I will hopefully have the same job that I have now. It would be pretty cool if I had my own side company too. Maybe a craft/gift shop on our Town Green?

6. 10 years from now ill be doing…

2023, Age 34:

Wow. This is really weird to think about. The year 2023 seems so futuristic to me and age 34 seems so old. However, I know time will fly by and before I know it, 10 years will pass. I think I'll just be focused on our family by then. I still plan on being a working mother. Hopefully I'll be running my own company by then, but even if I had the same job then as I do now, I would be grateful.

Day 11: About me, in 10 words or less.

May 11, 2013 Topic of the Day:

Sell yourself in 10 words or less.

I was having a hard time with coming up with words to describe myself with, so I asked my husband for his opinion. Straight from his mouth...

Isn't he lovely?

Friday Favorites: Doilies & Lace

I've recently become obsessed with lace and doilies. There are so many things you can do with them! Whether you are lighting up a room or hosting a party, these materials are perfect for spring and bring elegance to every project.

Check out some more ideas on my {lace&doilies} Pinterest board.

DIY Doily Cocktail Stirrers

Doily Place Cards

DIY Lace Lamp

DIY Doily Envelopes

Doily Wrapped Napkins

Doily Serving Cones