Loving Heart. Happy Home.

After having our son three years ago, I have wanted to lose weight. During my pregnancy, I gained 60 pounds. Great American Cookie everyday during pregnancy sounded like a good idea at the time, but I'm still paying for it. And paying for it. I don't have much self control these days, and it doesn't help that my husband spoils me. For me, 2014 was a year of ifs. If I just lose this weight, I'll be happy. If I just gain self control, I can do many things. If I just spend more time cleaning, everything would stay clean. I've learned that, for the most part, ifs aren't what changes you. I can't gain self control by telling myself "if" this. So, with the start of 2015, I'm to change those "ifs" to "whens," and I'll change my wants to reasons.  When I lose the weight, I will be healthier . When I learn to respect myself , I'll be happy. When I regain my self control, I will teach my son healthier ways .  You see...

Little A started Preschool-3 this year, and so far, he's loved it. He has an amazing teacher, and learns more each day. At the beginning of the year, we were told that Little A would need a nap mat for quiet time. I don't know about you, but for us, it was nearly impossible to find a nap mat. I looked multiple places, Craigslist, Walmart, Target, and I couldn't find any! Being my overly crafty self, I decided that I could make it for him!  With coupons in hand, I headed to the local Hobby Lobby. This store is very dangerous when you're a crafter, just a warning! It took me an hour or so to finally decide on the fabric that I wanted to use. It was time to head back home to start on the project.  It took a few days to actually start because I couldn't quite figure out how I wanted to go about his nap mat. He's only in preschool, and I wanted his nap mat to last until at least kindergarten, which meant it had to be more neutral. I had chosen black and wh...

Two days ago was our four year wedding anniversary. I know, I know, we already celebrated in Colorado. My husband's job is in peak season at the moment, so we had to go a month early if we wanted to go at all. Anyways! We are celebrating with a dinner tonight, and gifts that we got each other.  On our anniversary day, my husband came home with gorgeous roses to celebrate the traditional gift of flowers. Flowers. Obviously, this is the year of gifts for women. What do you get a man that pertains to flowers? This was a real head-scratcher. I couldn't just get him flowers, what would he do with them? I had also been wanting to get him a nice beer mug for those hockey nights, and that definitely isn't related to flowers! Off to good ol' Pinterest I went. The thing is, the gifts that popped up weren't traditional gifts. You see, my husband and I decided to stick with the traditional gifts on our wedding anniversaries. I love traditions! But, it also makes it somew...

I am so happy that I can finally post our mantel! Christmas is our favorite time of the year, our mantel, I feel, shows that love off. I have been preparing this Christmas mantel for weeks, and I am not even ashamed.    Like our Halloween mantel, our Christmas mantel had to be within budget. Dollar Tree is an awesome store for budgets, and I found myself there many times. Most garlands that I found at craft stores, and even Walmart, were a little high on the budget, so I decided to check out Dollar Tree as a last resort. I am so glad that I decided to check it out. It didn't disappoint! I purchased four garlands, at the price of $1 each. You can't beat that! Now, I know they're not the fullest, but that was why I purchased so many. I was able to cut three of them in half to fill up the mantel.

For our holiday mantel, I wanted to find reasonably priced candlesticks to go on one side. It's actually fairly difficult to find candlesticks at a good price. Now I know this is a long post for a small project, but to me, no project is too small! I explored a few stores, but most of the candlesticks were at least $10. We needed three, so candlesticks at $10 a piece would be more expensive than the whole Christmas mantel!  So off to a few local thrift stores I went! I decided to upcycle candlesticks from the thrift store with some paint. We have quite a few around us, but there is one that it my absolute favorite. CCA has stores around called reStore. They always have new things every time I visit. This time, I was on a mission to find a few candlesticks. I went down every aisle, looked over every item, until finally, in a few different places, I found three candlesticks.  Now, they were nowhere near perfect. In fact, they didn't match and they were definitely s...