Other People's Things

We had some church people to our house for game night and I made some easy delicious things...very hard to mess these up!

Pumpkin/peanut butter dip (toward the bottom):
http://urbanext.illinois.edu/party/food_snacks.html

Healthy yogurt veggie dip:
http://www.mealsmatter.org/recipes-meals/recipe/18944

Layered Brownies (a little bit harder, but delicious! Andrew even liked these and he doesn't like brownies):
http://wondertime.coverleaf.com/wondertime/200903/?pg=97

I just think this is cool:
http://amyatlas.blogspot.com/2009/09/new-genealogy-charts-by-melangerie.html

The Adventures of Arnold

About 2 weeks ago now, I was in the bedroom with the door to the porch open. I heard little scratching noises coming from under the tarp, and got a little worried about what might be under there...

...a giant spider the size of my face, a rabid raccoon...
...ya know...all those normal rational fears people get about what's hiding under their tarps.

So I went outside (despite my fears) and discovered it was a squirrel! He was very curious and I managed to feed him some almond slivers. He loved them!

A couple days later I went to put something on the porch and startled poor Arnold. He scampered out from under the tarp. I had left the screen door open so I was afraid he was going to run inside, but he didn't.

Then 3 days ago he was scratching at the rug on the porch, so I put out two almonds for him. I didn't see him at all yesterday. Then just about an hour ago I realized...the almonds were gone!

So Arnold is alive and well. I only see him once in awhile.

Enjoy some pictures of my little pet
(Oh, and fyi, you can click the pictures to make them bigger)...

The first time I met Arnold...
...He let me get pretty close,

but then he ran and hid.
And then he got brave again.
Then I ran inside and got some almond slivers. He liked that a lot!

So I set out a couple more (see them on top of the ivy tablecloth?)
He sniffed for them...
and looked for them...
And finally found them!
The End.

?

This made me lol: http://craftfail.com/

Check out some of my pics here: http://jackiesphoto.blogspot.com

Saving the World one Craft at a Time

Meet our firstborn, Hiro...

He lives in our office...

Being on this craft kick, I've discovered that reusing and recycling plays into crafting a whole lot. It's pretty fun actually. Tonight Andrew asked me if there was anything we could make together. I was so excited that he was asking that I quickly said yes and found one of the crafts online I had been wanting to make. Unfortunately I jumped the gun so much that we only got about 1/4 of the way through the project when I realized we didn't have 3 vital ingredients! (I know ingredients isn't the right word since I'm not referring to food, but I can't think of that other word...what is it?) That project involved a phone book, of which only about 1% of Americans use anymore! So I was happy to be recycling it. But since that didn't happen, I was inspired to wrap some presents...


Matthew's birthday was at the beginning of August. I've had a gift for him since June, I think, but never sent it. So I wrapped it tonight to bring to him when I go to IL at the end of this month...



For anyone who knows Matthew, you know he'll get a kick out of the page from the phone book that I chose to be on the front of his gift. The little name tag is made out of one of the magnets that are always annoyingly placed on the front of phone books. I wrote on it with whiteout...when I messed up I used a Sharpie...how backwards is that?! ;)

Then I wrapped my dad's present (whose birthday is tomorrow). I used 2 tea boxes...




Another reuse I've put into play are these...



Old canisters tacked to the wall being used as pencil/whatever holders.


Oh, I decided to put my little cattail bundle in the olive oil bottle. I think it looks much better. Andrew just realized tonight that they were real...he thought I bought them from Hobby Lobby.




Time to edit some wedding photos for Zach and Jenn...
Over and Out.

Century BOB, Decorations, Jibberish

So I realized I'm not good at blogging because I don't do it everyday. I forget about it, or don't want to do it, but then when I have the time or want to write, I end up writing a lot! So I apologize for that, but oh well, right? I'll try to keep this short, and don't worry, it's mostly pictures :)

Anyway, first on tonight's blog is a little story...
The other day I was driving to work, looked over, and saw a very strange sight. It looked something like this:

I was so caught off guard that I was a little frightened! Then it was just hilarious. Ya..a man was driving his convertible...top down and all...down Wadsworth with a Century B.O.B. in the passenger seat. I really wished I had my camera, but didn't. So I decided to make a quick 5 minute fake picture in Photoshop of what I saw. By the way, I had no clue these things were called Century BOB's. I knew I had seen them at Sports Authority so I looked online but couldn't find them. I kept doing google searches and finally found the name!

Next on the list for tonight's blog: organizational inspiration...

As I was cleaning and getting ready to decorate, I came across the tin rectangle pails I had used for centerpieces at my wedding. I decided to use them as tea bag organizers. They don't fit perfectly, but they work pretty well:

Moving on to the next topic: Fall Decor...
When I got home and started looking for fall decorations, I realized that I pretty much only had Halloween and Thanksgiving stuff. So I have been getting creative! Which is fantastically fun...I'm so glad school isn't in the way to hinder it!

My first little project was just to do a little add-on change. I already had this mirror/candle holder hanging on the wall with the white candles. So at Hobby Lobby today I bought a $1 (!) roll of seasonal ribbon and some spray adhesive ($5) and added the cute little ribbon. I don't know if I want to do all 3 candles or not...what do you think?





Moving on to the mantle: I knew I had some Party Lite candle holders that are fall-ish, so I pulled those out...





I feel like they're kind of Bohemian-ish, but they're made of red and yellow beads, so the colors are perfect.

On my walk back from Hobby Lobby (yep, I can walk there, which makes me happy), I picked some cattails, wheat stalks, and picked up some sticks. I brought those home and tied a little piece of raffia around them that I already had (so all of this was free!)...





So here's what the whole mantle looks like:


I'm thinking about putting my little cattail bundle in a used olive oil bottle I have. I tried it out and it looks pretty cool. The bottle is drying right now. What do you think?...Leave them lying on the mantle or put them in a bottle (use your imagination for how that would look).

Then I got to sit and drink my blackberry sage tea while enjoying my small decor changes. I was happy. I am happy. I have a couple more decor in the process. One involves one of those tin pails I used for the tea, and pine cones; one involves leaves; one involves twine and Styrofoam balls. I hope everyone enjoys the beginning of Autumn as much as I am! Even though the leaves haven't changed colors yet, and the temperature is still in the upper 70s/low 80s, don't forget that fall comes and goes fast, so start enjoying it now!

Autumn

As I was doing some errands today...bringing in my recycling, returning a few things to Target, and of course browsing and purchasing some things at Target, I had a feeling.

I couldn't figure out what the feeling was.

Then it hit me...it feels like fall today! Yay!!!

So I came home and started cleaning in preparation for fall decorating. I am so excited! So be prepared for some fall decor pictures of my home.