Crafty Thrusdays

I completely forgot Crafty Thursdays last week. I am not a good blogger- tsk, tsk. Anyway, this week I thought I would focus on all the beautiful flowers that are blooming around town. If I actually lived in a home maybe I could do one of these projects. In my town home they do all the lawn work for me!

5 Gardening Crafts:

From: Living, Laughing, Saving

From: Camille Styles

From: The Pretty Bee

From: The Improvised Life

From: Positively Splendid

Happy Crafting,

Grooming Day

My dogs are well taken care of but one thing I never do is take them to be groomed. With a German Shepherd that isn't really a big deal but with my Bernese Mountain dog I always wondered what could be done with all her hair.

She has a massive undercoat that you can barely even part to see her skin. I never know what to do with it and usually in the summer she gets nasty hot spots because she is burning up. We have figured out how to get rid of them before they become an issue but they still scare me.

Then, one of my best friends from high school moved back to Charlotte. I am so glad she is back- plus she provides me with baby time. Her son is quite possibly the cutest little boy I have ever seen. She is also a really good dog groomer and she offered to help me with Leia's first haircut.

It took her about 4 hours to help my crazy dog. I am so happy with the results! First, she did a de-shedding treatment. If you have a dog with an undercoat I highly recommend this rake she used. (This isn't the exact brand but this is what the blades look like)

I'm telling you this thing is like magic. Furminator's do not work with my dog because her hair is insanely thick but this thing- amazing! Just look at our box- oh- hair!

Then she gave her a bath and proceeded to blow dry her hair while brushing her even more. My dog has never been so fluffy in her life. This part took the longest but I learned quite a bit from it. One being that when you wash your dog at home and then just let her air dry her undercoat becomes matted. That is actually what is causing the hot spots since her skin can't breathe. When you blow dry her out as you brush, her undercoat is not stuck to her skin but instead becomes soft and fluffy. Pre haircut fluffy-ness:

All that hair on her butt area is so thick but it was like velvet after she brushed all of it out. Every summer I butcher her hair to make it short so she isn't hot but this year she gets to keep her pretty hair as long as I keep up with brushing her hair with the special rake once a week!! Lastly, was her real haircut and she is so happy!

I can't thank my friend enough! She did an amazing job on a neurotic dog- who, shockingly did pretty well throughout this marathon of a haircut.

One more tip- ever wonder why your dog doesn't smell like wet dog after going to a grooming salon? Doggy cologne is sprayed on them while they are being "blown out". Who woulda known??

Happy Sunday!

One of those weeks...

Do you ever take vacation and when you get home your realize it may have been easier to just stay home. This has been one of those weeks. We had such a good time in Atlanta for Easter though:

We played nerf war with the kids- and by we I mean my husband ran around like a manic all weekend and I took pictures. My husband is like a large child and therefore the cousins are pretty much obsessed with him. They were like little spider monkeys hanging off of him all weekend. Just look at his face:

There were seven kids under the age of 11 with us and my husband just might have been made kid number eight. We also had, at least, ten easter egg hunts.

And we blew bubbles to entertain the little ones. I also stuffed myself with sweets and completely forgot the whole- trying to lose weight thing. Oh well, I have already been back to the gym 4 times since then.

I spent my weekend hogging the newest addition to the family.

That is when the oldest of the seven kids didn't have her. We didn't get any real pictures of the whole gang so here are just a few of my favorites.

BUT- then I get home and our dryer belt breaks. Our dryer is so old that we are STILL waiting on the belt to come in. I think our entire wardrobe needs to be cleaned at this point.

Then my engine light comes on and- $400 dollars later- I have replaced a stupid sensor. Not to mention I have another $200 repair that he told me I will need to get done in the next 6 months. Grr, I am literally going to have the car paid off in 3 months. Can't it just wait a little while.

Then, today I got out my camera to upload my pictures from the weekend and I realize I left my memory card in Atlanta. AHHH. Thank goodness for Facebook but it's so annoying.

Plus all the joy of coming back to work and catching up with everything. At least all my kids were on spring break so I didn't have any late nights.

Tomorrow my dog is getting her first real haircut. I can't wait!

Hope everyone has a good weekend!

Crafty Thursdays

In honor of the yummy treats that I will fully allow myself to eat this Easter weekend! I mean, I joined the gym so I could allow myself these things sometimes...

5 Easter Desserts:

From: With a Greatful Prayer and a Thankful Heart  

From: Life Made Delicious

From: Hobby Craft

From: Love and Olive Oil

From: Bakerella

Hope that everyone has some great plans for Easter. The hubs and I are planning on invading my cousin's home in Atlanta. Maybe I can even fit in some Varsity chili dogs!
Happy Crafting,

Crafty Thursdays

Now that I have finally posted a blog on my own spring wreath I figured it was time to feature other people's lovely work. Although I am still attempting my crafty budget cut for spring, pinterest still has some amazing ideas. I still love making wreaths and I have found tons of brightly colored and beautiful spring wreaths.

Top 5 Spring Wreaths

From: Tater Tots and Jello

From: Daul House Shop

From: Making It Fun

From: U-Create

From:Moda Bake Shop

They make me wish I hadn't made my wreath early so that I could recreate their ideas!

Happy Crafting,

Spring Wreath

Now that it is finally Spring I figured I could display how I made my spring wreath. I was so over winter that I made it months ago but that is normal right? Plus, since I have placed myself on a "stop spending money at Michael's" budget cut it is good that I started this one early.

It is actually a pretty cheap project. What you need:

a wooden frame (mine is 8x10)
hydrangea paper punch
craft paper
ribbon
glue gun
TIME

Start off by cutting out a lot of hydrangea flowers with your whole punch and then, basically, you just start glueing. It helps to fold up the paper in order to make it more three dimensional. Plus, you can fit more in and have less wood showing.

As normal, I didn't even paint the frame before I started gluing but you could paint it and not have to worry about the wood showing through. Plus I added a bow because I felt like it was missing something.  I still think other things could be added to it but I like to keep things simple.

Happy Spring!

Hunger Games

It took me a long time to join the Harry Potter band wagon. Then I read the first book and I have been hooked ever since. I literally read the last book in one day-OK, it took me like 15 hours but I think that is pretty impressive. Ever since then I have always tried to give these popular "young adult" books a chance. I attempted to like Twilight in the same way but, nope I think it sucks. Hunger Games has successfully sucked me in though!

I have been thinking about reading the books for quite some time and this weekend my husband and I picked the first book up at Sam's Club for like $4. He read it in 3 days and I read the entire book yesterday so we can go see the movie tonight.

We never seem to have time for a date night so I am also pretty excited that we even have a dinner and movie night in general! Now I just have to read the next two books to prepare for the next movies!

If you haven't read the books yet give them a chance- it is a good story line.

Happy Friday,