Bow Holder Tutorial

My little Ella Bean has a LOT of bows. A lot. I was getting sick of them being tossed on the table, on the night stand, in a drawer, wherever, so I made a cutie patatootie holder for all of them. If you have a little princess who wears bows, make one of these for her, she'll love it!

Ok, first the supplies: 1 art canvas, any size you want, some pretty girlie fabric, grosgrain ribbon, scissors, and your trusty staple gun.

First step: Be sure to iron your fabric, and lay it out flat with the canvas on top.

Cut your fabric down, leaving about 2 inches on each side. You want to make sure you have enough to cover the sides of the frame, but not so much where you have too much fabric to work with. Does that make sense?

Now you want to start pulling the fabric up and over the edges of the canvass and staple it to the back of the frame as you go. I did the top and bottom and then the corners. I wrapped the corners, like I would a present.

Once you get your fabric stapled on, lay your ribbon out the way you want it and pin it in place.

Then go ahead and staple the ribbon to the back of the frame as well.
You can adjust as you go to make sure they are straight, mine aren't perfect, but I am ok with that!

That's it! Now clip all your princess's hair pretties to it and you are done!

This is only half of Ella Bean's bows, but it is a nice organized start! I'll have to post pictures once it is hanging up in her room. I also am going to put a frame around it, for a finishing touch, but its cute the way it is!

Oh my heavens!

My man knows me so well. He knows the way to my heart is through my stomach. Last Saturday he took me to one of my favorite restaurants to celebrate our anniversary, PF Changs.

We started off with the pan fried dumplings. They were scrumptious!

Then I had the Kung Pao Scallops. For all that is good and holy, these were AMAZING! I just can't explain it, they we so smooth and creamy, and spicy too. I was very sad when they were gone.

After our meal we walked to another restaurant called McCorrmick and Schmick's. They have a desert that is out of this world!

This is not the best picture, but we had a Chocolate Bag. It was so stinking good!! It was full of this delicious cream and berries, and the chocolate, oh the chocolate.

What a fantastic night. Great food and time alone with my awesome husband. Perfect night!

Four Years Ago..........

It was just four short years ago today that I married my best friend. It was a beautiful Fall day, we were surrounded by friends and family, and God so blessed us that day. As I look back on that time, I am in awe of how good God is! The way He provided during that time in our lives is so awesome! Chad proposed on June 18th and we were married October 15th. We planned a beautiful wedding and reception in less that 4 months, that in itself was a miracle!

My, how handsome my man is! Takes my breath away!

I love this picture of me and my mom. She was so beautiful that day.

Another favorite picture. My sweet Noah. He was 3. He and I both had waited a long time for this day. I was gaining a husband, but he was gaining a daddy!

Noah with the flower girls!

Me and my precious boy.

Sarah and I. She is one of my dearest friends and was my maid of honor. She helped sooooo much with our wedding, we couldn't have done it without her!

Ariel. Another sweet blessing. I not only was getting a husband, but a precious daughter too!

Daddy and Ariel. I love this tender moment between them, he is putting on her bracelet.

Noah and the girls again.

My sweet daddy. I know this day was bittersweet for him. Oh how I love and admire this man!

Did I mention that I LOVED my dress.

And my GORGEOUS flowers!

Chad, and his siblings, Libby, Lucas, Josh, and Micah.

Our reception was great. We danced together a lot with our kids, they were so tired!

I love this picture of my dress, one day was just not long enough to wear it!

Happy Anniversary my love! I love you with all my heart and I am so thankful for you!

The Ring of Fire

Fire, burning, pain. That is what it feels like when one is having an acid reflux attack. I know, because I have had an many attacks the past few weeks. Nothing helps. Nothing. I am on meds, but they do not seem to be working. Why am I telling you all this? Due to the pain and the crappy way I have felt, I have not been able to keep up with my 30 Days of Clean challenges. This really frustrates me, because I was and still am super excited about taking on this challenge. Its just hard to clean, or do much of anything, when it feels like you are being stabbed in the chest. Its also hard to take care of 3 little kids, and a husband when one feels like crap. Did I mention I feel like crap??? Sorry, but it is getting really old. Chad went to the health food store on Thursday and spent WAAAAAAYYYY too much money and came home with a plethora of homeopathic remedies. So now everyday I am swallowing acidopholis, digestive enzymes, aloevera juice, and raw apple cider vinegar. The latter 2 are super yummy, NOT! I am just praying that these new fixes will work.

I also am trying not to be bitter, because I can't have coffee, chocolate, tomatoes, alcohol, fried foods, and DIET COKE!!!!

Just shoot me now.

Cleaning, cleaning, cleaning........

Well, it has been going pretty good so far. I have managed to keep my kitchen clean for almost a week, woooo hoooo! I had to take a few days off from the schedule because I wasn't feeling well on Friday and then we had a jammed packed Labor Day weekend. So, I am only on day four, which is to tackle your living room. Mine is all clean, and it looks great! On day 3 our challenge was to clean out the kids area of your home. Here are some before and after pics of our toy area (which was in our living room).

I decided to move all our toys to a bakers rack that I have. I plan on covering it with some material so the toys will be hidden, but still accessible. Since I made this change the kids have kept their toys picked up! I got the basket at a garage sale and spray painted it black, it makes a great toy basket!

Its not too late, join me on my quest here - 31 Days to Clean.

My love.

Tuesday my sweet hubby turned 36. We spent a great day together, nothing special, just a nice relaxing day together. This was especially nice because lately I don't get to see Chad very much, he works ALL the time. I am so blessed to have him as a husband. He is such a hard worker and a wonderful provider, I know that he would rather be home in the evenings, but he goes to his second job 4-5 nights a week so that I can stay home and raise our babies. He is so selfless.

I've posted about my cleaning challenge but haven't said anything about my 30 Day Encouragement Challenge for Wives. It has been going great! Day 1 I thanked Chad for choosing me, for making me his wife. Day 2 I let him know how much I appreciate how he helps me with little things around the house even though he doesn't have a lot of time. Day 3 was about encouraging your husband, not saying anything negative to him. So far, it has been a blessing to do this, I am excited to see what is yet to come!

Day 2

Day 2 of 31 Days to Clean consisted of making a list of 6 things I want to get done through out the day. Yesterday I tackled my kitchen. Let me just say that it is very hard for me to show these pictures, because my kitchen was simply disgusting! The night before I made a huge dinner for Chad's birthday and then we had to rush to football practice, so everything was just left piled up on the counters. Let me also say that I really do not like the house that we live in, it is temporary, but knowing that doesn't make me like it any better. One of the reasons that I am doing this is because I want to make the most of what God has given me, and I want to make this dwelling our Home.

OMG! Yuck!

Ahhhhh.....that's more like it.

I even had time to make a curtain with some leftover fabric that I had! I ran out of fringe though, so it's not quite finished. But, in true Nester fashion, it doesn't have to be perfect to be beautiful!

Today is day 3 and here is my list of 6.

1. Put Ella's clothes away
2. Make my bed
3. Clean Chad's bathroom
4. Vacuum
5. Sweep dining room floor
6. Day 3 challenge

Have a great day everyone!

Day 1 of 31

Well, yesterday was my first day in the 31 Days to Clean. The first day entails making a list of your priorities, not house cleaning priorities, but the way you want to prioritize your life. I used the same ones that Sarah did, but also added some of my own. Here they are:

1. God - He must come first EVERY day in EVERY thing that I do.
2. Chad (my husband) - I want to be an awesome wife, I want to be a blessing to my man.
3 . My kiddos - I want to bond with my kids, play with them, cook with them, read books and sing with them. I want to spend a dedicated time with them just having fun.
4. Home - I want a clean and organized home. A home where all who enters feels comfort and love.
5. My health - I need to get into shape and eat better.
6. My friends - I need to spend time each month with "just the girls".
7. Personal - spending time doing projects and reading brings me joy. Getting my home in order will open up more free time so that I can do these things.

That's it! Tomorrow I'll be back with info about today, which is really good! If any of you reading decided to take this challenge, please let me know how your day 1 went!

Blessings.

I must be crazy.

Ok, here's the thing. I am needing some serious big time changes to happen in my life soon. If something doesn't change soon, I just might lose my mind, and since so many count on me, (my 3 kids and my husband) that might not be such a good thing. One thing that needs to change is the state of my house, its ridiculous. So, starting tomorrow I am embarking on 1 of 2 challenges for this month. The first is 31 Days To Clean, which is a series from Sarah at Like a Warm Cup of Coffee. It is my prayer that through this series I will prioritize and focus on my home, so that it can be a clean, organized sanctuary for my family to come home to each day. I encourage every one to check out this series and join me!

The second challenge or commitment I am making is concerning my marriage. For the next 30 days I am making a commitment to be nothing but an encouragement to my husband. And since tomorrow is his birthday, I couldn't think of a better time to start. If you want to take this adventure, go check out the 30 Day Encouragement Challenge for Wives.

I am excited about both of these commitments, but I also am a wee bit worried, because I tend to start things, and then about 1/2 way through, run out of steam and give up. These two things are so important to me and I really want to see these challenges to the end. So, please, those of you who know me, and even if you don't, I ask that you pray for me and even ask me how I'm doing. Its my goal to blog about it frequently! I also encourage you all to take one or both of the challenges with me, after all the result will be a happy hubby, and a clean house, those are both winners in my book!

Summer is over.

To celebrate the very LAST day of summer we took the kids to the movie G-Force and then home to have "make your own" pizzas.

Noah is very excited about the pepperoni.

Benjamin loves him some pepperoni too!

Brothers being "cheesy". Get it, cheesy.


Our sweet Ella, wondering why she isn't getting in on the action.


Benjamin was brave and put on 1 mushroom and 4 olives.


Mine is the one with all the veggies!


Grrrrrrr....


Mmmmm, pizza....


Seriously? I told him it was hot, about a 1000 times.

For desert, parfaits.

Everyone loves parfaits.

Yummo.

Benjamin was in heaven.

Noah licking the glass, what a goof!

It was a great night, and I wish we could have more of them!

My girl

I like bows. I love little girls with bows in their hair. I really LOVE my little girl with bows in HER hair. Because I love bows and bows in Ella's hair, I make Ella lots and lots of bows, so she is wearing a different bow everyday. She usually does great and leaves them alone, but on occasion she gets bored and then notices the big bright pretty thing on her head.

Here she is all sweet and pretty!

Oh, and so it begins...

It can be a slow process....

It takes her awhile to figure it out....

Still working....

Getting closer....

She has it in her mouth, she just can't see...

Seriously people, who turned out the lights?

I love this girl!