Not your momma's iron ons!

OMG!  Have I told you that I am slowly becoming smarter than my Cricut!  I can't believe it's finally happening.  I've actually made a few gifts and things for my house using the vinyl.  And just this week was college week at school.  AND we were able to wear jeans EVERYDAY as long as we had on a college shirt! **For those of you who don't know - Wearing jeans to work is a big deal for teachers!**  Anyway, I graduated from college 4 years ago and my SFA spirit shirts are starting to look a little worn.  So, I needed another shirt ASAP.  And Diddles over here didn't have one at all (and he just graduated like a year ago).  His only college shirt has now become mine b/c it is much too small for him.  Anyway...  Thanks to my handy dandy Cricut and some iron on vinyl I was able to whip up these babies in a matter of minutes:

Yes, I know they are super plain.  I was in a hurry and this was just my first experiment with the wonderful world of iron on vinyl.  I looooooove it!

Scentsy News!

Ok, I had little time to craft this weekend. I just needed to rest. However, I did find out some rather exciting news from Scentsy. Our new Spring/Summer catalog will be coming out soon with new scents and warmers. I can't wait!!!! That also means many of the scents and warmers will be discontinued to make room for the new products. So here is the discontinued list (make sure you stock up before March 1st):
Scents - Guava Nectar, Sentimental Cider, Central Park Pralines, Christmas Cottage, Christmas Tree, Cozy Fireside, Eskimo Kiss, Gingersnap, Poinsettia Pine, Snowberry, Spiced Grapefruit, Winter Wonderland, Twilight, Vanilla Suede, Peligro, Rustic Lodge, Clarity, Rainforest, Pineapple Paradise, Tropical Twist, Cranberry Spice, Just Peachy Ginger, Pumpkin Roll, Toasted Caramel Sugar, Vanilla Walnut, Maple Butter, and Silver Bells.
Warmers - Wild West, Love Life Hope, Blynken, Wynken, Merino, Give Thanks, Sparrow, Canary, Sendai and Prancer.

I'll post pics and descriptions of the new products as soon as I can! Now it's time to sleep... Another looooong work week awaits! :(

Can We Have a Little Privacy???

Before I get started here are a few pics of what I've been doing lately.  Keep in mind I have about 20 more where these came from.  I've been VERY busy!

So, we just purchased this house on November 20th (Yes it's been almost 2 months now!) and we really looooove it.  We took our time and waited about 7 months after selling our last house and we totally made the right decistion b/c now we have our dream house at the ages of 27 and 26...  actually I was 25 at the time.  I've only been old since Christmas Eve ;)

Anyway..... We LOVE our house.  It has a place for everything.  3 guest bathrooms, giant master suite, gameroom (that we started transforming into a home gym), craft room, guest room, pool, 3 car garage, music room for the hubs and even an office to hide our computer and his books.  I could go on.  But, lets get back to this office. We never really considered having an office before, but this house had one and it was an extra feature that we really liked.  Now this office is opens up right to our foyer/ dining room/ living room/ front door area.  The office is covered in real wood paneling. It's quality stuff... just a little too formal for us.  We may change it in the future.  But, the even bigger issue is that the office houses our crappy computer desk that I drug back from college.... And right now the office has really become our dumping ground for all of the things that we aren't sure what to do with just yet.  So, it really isn't something I want everyone to see as they walk into our house.  So, Friday night I had the bright idea to do etching on the glass of the french doors.  I sent Diddles out Saturday to get some stuff to spray on there.  Needles to say it was slim pickin's.  Right now we are on our 1 billionth coating and it still isnt quite where I want it to be.  But, I know it will get there.  The next thing on my list is to get the outside part of the door primed and painted white to match all of the trim in the rest of the house.....   See what we've done so far:

This is the beginning stages of taping everything off.

And here it is with about a can and a half on it....

Here is what it looks like from the foyer right now....  It will look sooooo much better with a few more coats, an nice white paint job and some new handles!

Sweet Magnolia Giveaway

Sweet Magnolia is doing an awesome giveaway over on her blog.  You could win an Expression plus 3 cartridges!  Thats a pretty sweet deal if I say so my self. 

Here is the link to enter:

http://sweetmagnoliarose.blogspot.com/2011/01/up-dated-giveaway.html

I'm not giving up

The new super easy t-shirt craft I talked about doing didn't turn out as I had hoped.  Don't get me wrong, it's not awful.  But, I know I can do much better.  I didn't cut out the inside of the R, so it  didn't look right.  I tried to add fabric there, but that didn't look so good either.  I doubt I will ever wear this to school.  But, I definitely learned from my mistake.  I also believe that the dye method would look better on white (I didn't have a white shirt handy or else I would have tried that).  Anyway,  sorry for the short post and the lame iphone picture,  I've got to get my Scentsy ready for an event I'm doing starting tomorrow evening through Saturday.

I'll leave you with the embarrassing evidence.

Vacation is OVER

Back to reality today... Sort of.  Today was the first day back to work after a wonderful two week vacation.  Luckily the kids won't be  back until tomorrow.  I soooooooo needed this buffer day to readjust to my regular schedule.  Trust me, if my kids would have been at school today they would not have learned anything!  I tried to remember what we were learning and get everything in order for that.  But, I felt like I was just walking around in circles all day shuffling paper (probably because that's exactly what I was doing).  It was also a very weird day because there were many tears shed and very sad coworkers.  This was because tomorrow is the funeral for little Jonathan Foster.  He went to our school until around Thanksgiving and as I'm sure you all know he was murdered on Christmas Eve (my birthday).  It's a really sad story and our school has been full of really sad stories lately.  Just pray for him and all of those people affected by this.
So, don't expect and craft posts for a couple of days.  It's going to take me a couple of days to get going.

BUT -
When you do hear about some crafting it might have something to do with  my new CRICUT!  Yay!  It was wating on my front door step when we got home from work today.  I started to play with it, however I don't think I had the brain power to deal with it just yet.  That will have to wait until later this week.  Hopefully it will really help me out because I have about 20 more applique t-shirts to make ASAP.

This is pretty much what I have just sitting in my craft room waiting for me to have the energy to put it to work!

Now I think it's time for a nap.... And yes, this nap will last until 5 something in the AM.

Cheap Wall Art

I'm wondering if something like this would work in our living room.  You see we just bought this house a week before Thanksgiving (yes, just over 1 month ago).  Now, it's our second home purchase so we already had all of the basic essentials taken care of.  However, this house is more than twice the size of our previous home.  Therefore, not everything fits where it used to.  Plus we have this raised paneling effect in our living room that we really liked when we first saw the house.  However, now we just aren't sure what to put on the walls in there b/c our one large wall is chopped up into three even sections.  It is really starting to make me  very angry wonder what to do there. 
You can see what I'm talking about here:

This just shows two of the three panels and please, please, please ignore that terrible cord running down the wall and around the corner....  That would be the doings of my hubbers (or as I like to call him "Diddles").

I'm thinking it is worth a try.  It appears to be a rather cheap and easy craft - and that just happens to be my favorite kind.  I've done something similar with wood frames and I stretched various fabrics over them.  However, I've changed decor and they no longer are worthy of my wall.

And while we are at it, take a look at our fireplace.  I'm still working on what to do above there also.  I don't want to just throw something up there...

I have a feeling I'm going to try a few things before I find something that works.  Oh well, I'm sure I'll have fun in the process!

Scentsy January 2011

I'm sooooo excited about January because of all of the awesome promotions going on through Scentsy.  Anyone who hosts a basket OR home party during this month will get double the half off items!  I know!  I hosted my first Scentsy party this time last year, and let me tell you I really racked up. 
Not only is this the best month to host a party, but Scentsy is doing the "Bring Back My Bar" promotion.  This is where they bring back 20 discontinued scents for one month only and you can purchase bars of them.  Here are the scents:

ALWAYSBurst of fruit followed by velvety vanilla and Sandalwood.
BAKED BROWN SUGARWarm brown sugar mixed with nutmeg.
BERRIES AND BUBBLYSweet Strawberry aroma with champagne.
BUBBLEGUMThe true scent of baseball-card bubblegum-sugar and cotton candy with a hint of mint.
CARROT CAKEIrresistibly sweet, nutty, warmer and spicy, just like carrot cake.
CHERRY CLOVE CHUTNEYCrushed bing cherries, cloves and cinnamon.
CLARY SAGEFresh floral bouquet with hints of lavender and lilac.                                                           
FALLING LEAVESAn earthy blend of clove, cinnamon, and patchouli.
FLOWER SHOPJust like walking into a flower shop.
FRESH CUT GRASSLike a freshly cut fairway on a cool summer morning.
GRAPE VINELike sweet grape juice or a full-bodied Cabernet.
HUCKLEBERRY HEAVENLike Grandma’s huckleberry jam.
LAVENDER VANILLARelaxing mix of hillside lavender, vanilla beans, orange zest, and patchouli.
PEARBERRYSmooth blend of delicious pears and raspberries.
RAISIN SPICE TEAEnchanting blend of must, clove, nutmeg, cinnamon, and vanilla.
REDWOOD & CEDARA fresh scent with texture, warmth, and sensuality reminiscent of a cedar closet.
SANDALWOOD AND CRANBERRIESExotic sandalwood, sweet cranberries, and spice.
TOASTED APPLE BUTTERCreamy butter blended with ripe apples accented with rich spices.
VANILLA OAKSimple and classing blend of smooth French vanilla and woody oak.
WASABI GINGERSpicy notes of wasabi blended in perfect harmony with fresh ginger.

Now, I haven't tried any of these scents before and I'm dying to get mine in.  I just ordered 6 of them this morning!

If you're ever in the market for an affordable way to keep your home, car or office smelling great check out my website!

FYI: These scents will be available to purchase in bar form only and only during the month of January 2011.  This time around there will also be a sampler pack available for purchase that includes one bar of each of the returning scents.  Who knows when (or if!) these bars will be back again.

Upcoming Project

So...  My BFF sent me a link to what appears to be the EASIEST t-shirt craft I've ever seen.  I must admit I'm a little sad/embarrassed that I didn't think of it first.  You can see the idea here or here.  Now I went to JoAnn's several times this week and stocked up on thread, scissors and other goodies they had on sale + I used my teachers 15%off ALL purchases ALL the time!  Yay!  Definitely my FAVORITE crafting store.  Anyway..... After being inspired I went back again yesterday and got a few more supplies seen here (and yes I know I really didn't need any more thread, rotary cutters or scissor/nippers, but at 40 and 50% off I just had to):

I decided to try this idea not only on colored shirts with bleach, but on white shirts using dye - I know!  I think this is going to be genius idea.  So, I got all sorts of fabric dye and I'm still thinking about going back to get more when the hubster isn't with me.  I'm sooooo excited to try it out (as soon as my CRICUT comes in that is)!  For my t-shirts I drew letters by hand and I have them all thrown in a drawer and I pull them out and trace them every time I need them.  I'm hoping my Cricut will help me out with this issue.
And yes I know I don't need a Cricut to do this.  However, after years of creating patterns and cutting them out by hand I refuse to do it anymore.  That's why I bought myself a Cricut for my birthday.... just one week ago and now I just have to wait a couple more days for it to arrive via UPS.  But, I've already got all of the materials laid out and I bought a few different brands and types of dye to test out.  Here are the ones I've decided to experiment with:

As much as I hate don't really care for the color red it is our school color so I went ahead and got some to test out for a spirit shirt.  I purchased red and turquoise (my fav) in powder form and pink and purple in liquid form.  I have really high hopes for this project and I hope it is a success b/c I really think it will be by far one of the easiest crafts ever crafted!!!!