Modern Day Hippie Mama

Monday, November 30, 2009

Make It Monday

Well, I have a feeling for the next few weeks my Make It Monday will be scrapbook pages. Mark bought me a digiscrapbooking class for Christmas and let me have it early. I just finished assignment 1a from the class and am so excited about all that I'm learning. It's an advanced class and I was afraid it would be too hard for me but I think it's exactly the perfect class for me.

These are the things I learned to do while making this page... I did not use a template for this page at all and it is quite complex.
  • Create complex shapes with the Photoshop drawing tools, including the vector drawing tools and the marquee tools
  • Use compound shapes as clipping masks
  • Create straight scalloped edges on patterned paper
  • Add "pop" to a photo with a colored overlay
  • Wrap ribbon around objects
  • "Hang" a tag from ribbon
  • Create compound masks for a single sheet of patterned paper
  • Create a semi-transparent journaling box with shaped text in it
  • Re-color textured items on their own layer


I can already see some mistakes now that I'm looking at it again... oh well, it's charming to keep the mistakes, right?

Saturday, November 28, 2009

Scripture Saturday

Jeremiah 29:11 NIV
For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.

Jeremiah 29:11 the Message
"This is God's Word on the subject: "As soon as Babylon's seventy years are up and not a day before, I'll show up and take care of you as I promised and bring you back home. I know what I'm doing. I have it all planned out—plans to take care of you, not abandon you, plans to give you the future you hope for."

Thursday, November 26, 2009

Thankful Thursday

Happy Thanksgiving!

Today I'm so thankful for all of my family who I love and adore. I wish I could spend the holiday with all of them.

Wednesday, November 25, 2009

Work In Progress Wednesday

We're currently enjoying time with family and looking forward to some Thanksgiving eating. We're excited about what's going on at our house this week but I only have some before pics to share with you today.

Check out the really terrible windows with the broken seals. We can't wait to have some energy efficient windows. Again, we decided to spend the extra money on the ones that qualify for the tax credit. The tax credit will end up paying for the rest of the windows to be replaced in the spring... unless something else more major comes up, which I wouldn't be surprised about, lol.

Riah's room... Isaac's looks the same only black painted trim, lol
Master bedroom

Saturday, November 21, 2009

Scripture Saturday

Joshua 24:15 NIV
But if serving the LORD seams undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your forefathers served beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD.

and from the Message
"If you decide that it's a bad thing to worship God, then choose a god you'd rather serve—and do it today. Choose one of the gods your ancestors worshiped from the country beyond The River, or one of the gods of the Amorites, on whose land you're now living. As for me and my family, we'll worship God."

Friday, November 20, 2009

Foto Friday




Thursday, November 19, 2009

Thankful Thursday

I'm so thankful for my husband who works really hard so that I can stay home with our kids and not have to work a job outside of our home.


Wednesday, November 18, 2009

Work In Progress Wednesday

Well, not much to report on my end but Mark did some work to further winterize our house over the weekend. He went up into the attic and rearranged the insulation which was covering up the vents. Then he went outside and cleaned them out and installed new vents.
The old dirty vents

One of the new installed vents

looks like we missed painting a spot, lol

Tuesday, November 17, 2009

Tuesday's Two - a couple blogs I find inspiring

I'm probably going to feature a few blogs every week for quite awhile since I love finding inspiration and tutorials on them. I follow several home decorating and home DIY type blogs.

This has quickly become my favorite blog as we are working on fixing up our house. They have so many tutorials and I find them very inspiring as we're in the middle of such a mess and know now that we can't finish it all at once, but work little bits at a time. I found out about this blog from one of my DIY magazines and saw their bedroom and knew that I liked their style and had to check it out. I haven't looked back... in fact, I used their painting kitchen cabinets tutorial and our cabinets turned out perfect. I really encourage you to take a look at what they did with their 53 year old house to bring it up to date. I think you'll find it quite inspiring knowing that many of the things they did we can do too. Have fun!

Well, I just love home decorating and especially love things that are unique and special and especially love DIY. This blog is a little bit of all of that. I just find it so inspiring and really enjoy reading it daily. I just love the uniqueness of it all... I love the name too because I really do just soak up every post and learn so much. I can't wait to finally be able to get to a place in our home renovation that I can finally decorate. I'll just keep soaking up everything I read on this blog and hopefully in a few years I'll be able to enjoy using my love for art in my own home.

Monday, November 16, 2009

Make It Monday - Advent Calendar

This week Moriah and I are going to make an advent calendar for her. Over the weekend I bought this kit from Sweet Shoppe Designs and we need to get everything printed and then we'll start assembling it. Unfortunately, our printer isn't working right so I'm going to have to go to a photo lab to get them printed so we won't be working on it today. But, I thought it was so cute, I had to share and we can't wait to put it together. Isn't it adorable?

Saturday, November 14, 2009

Scripture Saturday

I'm changing things up a little again... Saturday Social was a flop so I've decided to change Saturdays to a day when I quote some of my favorite scriptures or songs.

Proverbs 31:10-31 NIV
10A wife of noble character who can find? She is worth far more than rubies.
11 Her husband has full confidence in her and lacks nothing of value.
12 She brings him good, not harm, all the days of her life.
13 She selects wool and flax and works with eager hands.
14 She is like the merchant ships, bringing her food from afar.
15 She gets up while it is still dark; she provides food for her family and portions for her servant girls.
16 She considers a field and buys it; out of her earnings she plants a vineyard.
17 She sets about her work vigorously; her arms are strong for her tasks.
18 She sees that her trading is profitable, and her lamp does not go out at night.
19 In her hand she holds the distaff and grasps the spindle with her fingers.
20 She opens her arms to the poor and extends her hands to the needy.
21 When it snows, she has no fear for her household; for all of them are clothed in scarlet.
22 She makes coverings for her bed; she is clothed in fine linen and purple.
23 Her husband is respected at the city gate, where he takes his seat among the elders of the land.
24 She makes linen garments and sells them, and supplies the merchants with sashes.
25 She is clothed with strength and dignity; she can laugh at the days to come.
26 She speaks with wisdom, and faithful instruction is on her tongue.
27 She watches over the affairs of her household and does not eat the bread of idleness.
28 Her children arise and call her blessed; her husband also, and he praises her:
29 "Many women do noble things, but you surpass them all."
30 Charm is deceptive, and beauty is fleeting; but a woman who fears the LORD is to be praised.
31 Give her the reward she has earned, and let her works bring her praise at the city gate.

The Message

Hymn to a Good Wife
A good woman is hard to find,
and worth far more than diamonds.
Her husband trusts her without reserve,
and never has reason to regret it.
Never spiteful, she treats him generously
all her life long.
She shops around for the best yarns and cottons,
and enjoys knitting and sewing.
She's like a trading ship that sails to faraway places
and brings back exotic surprises.
She's up before dawn, preparing breakfast
for her family and organizing her day.
She looks over a field and buys it,
then, with money she's put aside, plants a garden.
First thing in the morning, she dresses for work,
rolls up her sleeves, eager to get started.
She senses the worth of her work,
is in no hurry to call it quits for the day.
She's skilled in the crafts of home and hearth,
diligent in homemaking.
She's quick to assist anyone in need,
reaches out to help the poor.
She doesn't worry about her family when it snows;
their winter clothes are all mended and ready to wear.
She makes her own clothing,
and dresses in colorful linens and silks.
Her husband is greatly respected
when he deliberates with the city fathers.
She designs gowns and sells them,
brings the sweaters she knits to the dress shops.
Her clothes are well-made and elegant,
and she always faces tomorrow with a smile.
When she speaks she has something worthwhile to say,
and she always says it kindly.
She keeps an eye on everyone in her household,
and keeps them all busy and productive.
Her children respect and bless her;
her husband joins in with words of praise:
"Many women have done wonderful things,
but you've outclassed them all!"
Charm can mislead and beauty soon fades.
The woman to be admired and praised
is the woman who lives in the Fear-of-God.
Give her everything she deserves!
Festoon her life with praises!

Friday, November 13, 2009

Foto Friday - Happy Birthday Bruiser







Thursday, November 12, 2009

Thankful Thursday

I'm changing things up a bit on the blog and Thursday's postings are one of the changes. I wanted a day of the week to post about the things I'm thankful for so I felt that Thursdays were the best day for that. I found this wonderful word art freebie on one of the scrapbooking blogs that I follow and decided to do a page with it... so my first Thankful Thursday will be my top ten list of things I'm thankful for in 2009.


Need a blog makeover?

I know I do...

My friend Kari does such a great job designing blogs and she is having a blog makeover giveaway. Come check it out!

Wednesday, November 11, 2009

Work In Progress Wednesday - not much to report this week

Well it was Isaac's first birthday this weekend so we really didn't get much done other than cleaning the house and preparing for the party and then cleaning up after the party. I finished painting the bottom of the bathroom walls and just need to finish up cleaning it up a bit. I've decided to do cream for the top half instead of a color and hope to get to that sometime this winter. Mark caulked the windows that won't be replaced this winter and installed the last closet door. That's pretty much all that was done, told you it wasn't much. Hopefully, we'll have more to report next week.

Tuesday, November 10, 2009

Tuesday's Two - a couple blogs I love to follow

I've become an avid blog reader and find inspiration from so many blogs every day. Every day I look forward to reading many of these blogs... so for the next few weeks I'll introduce you to some of them.

I get so much of my inspiration for scrapbooking both traditional and digital from this blog. My favorite is Tuesday's Tutorial which is full of great information and ideas and tons of inspiration. She also has great giveaways and I'm currently thinking about doing the December Daily to keep up with scrapping the holidays. She also has a column in the Creating Keepsakes magazine and is an author of a few books. She also is a highly sought after workshop instructor and I love her style of capturing everyday moments. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do... today's tutorial is all about journaling which is something I really need to work on in my scrapbooking.

This blog rocks! I'm all about homemade items and this is the place to go to find "fabulous" and "fun" stuff. She's just full of great finds and I look forward to seeing all the fun finds she has. Recently she had a massive giveaway going on. Those of you who are my Facebook friends or follow me on Twitter noticed that I was really excited about some of the gorgeous giveaways. I've never won any of them which is understandable considering how many followers she has on her blog but it was fun to see all the gorgeous products being given away. What I really like about her finds are that they are all so unique since I'm not the Pottery Barn type of person and really like everything that I have to be unique. Plus, I love helping out an artist if I need to purchase a gift and I find that Heather's blog is the perfect place to stop for inspiration in finding the most unique and perfect gift.

Make It Monday - a day late...

It was a super busy weekend for me with Isaac's birthday party. It was also Digital Scrapbooking Day on Saturday so there were all sorts of challenges over the weekend. I participated in a few of them whenever I had a few moments and was so excited to win a few prizes. I spent the weekend organizing my supplies (too many to fit on the EXD, lol) and downloading and yesterday I spent my free time making a few pages with some of my new kits. I used templates for both of them which made them go much faster and my fried brain didn't have to work so hard at being creative. Pics used were taken by Shining Wave Photography by Carrie. She did such a great job and I'm so happy with the pics. I'm so excited to have a nice family picture to order some prints & hang in our house.

Friday, November 6, 2009

Foto Friday











Wednesday, November 4, 2009

Work In Progress Wednesday - Help me pick a color for the bathroom

This was a pretty productive week, over the weekend Mark patched the driveway and moved some of the landscaping that was up too high against the house. I painted the numbers for the house. The last couple days I've been working on painting the upstairs bathroom. Because the bead board was pasted on to the wall we decided to paint it instead of taking it off. I must say that I hate painting bead board, it was really time consuming and I made a huge mess trying to get into all those grooves. Because it was really stained and gross I decided I needed to really get into those grooves with KILZ. If it wasn't so bad I probably would have just painted it. I chose the same espresso brown color that I used in the kitchen and I'm loving it. I still have to do one more coat of paint and then it's on to the upper half. Here's where you guys come in... I need help deciding a color. I was thinking a fun color since the rest of the house will be pretty neutral but then I was wondering if that would be too dark. There is tons of light in the bathroom although, none of it is natural light. Do I do the cream color in my shower curtain or pick one of the fun colors and go with that? If I do color, which one? I was thinking orange originally since that's my favorite color but now I'm feeling nervous about color. Thanks so much for your help!


An Amazing Blog And A Sweet & Generous Mama


I probably should have put this in with Tuesday's Two but this one deserves her own blog post. I came across this blog when she approached me to come join her new forum. Her new forum is for bloggers (which I really wanted to learn to do), photographers, DIYers and WAHM/C (work at home moms/chicks). Her goal for the forum is to help WAHM/Cs succeed with nothing in return for herself. I've gotten to know her quite well in the past few months and am totally blessed to have her in my life. She's so warm and generous and works so hard to help promote WAHM/Cs. She has become such a great friend and I look forward to catching up with her every day on her forum and love checking her blog every day. One of the awesome things she does to help WAHM/Cs is a giveaway every Wednesday on her blog. Meghan doesn't get the product...it goes directly to the winner. She doesn't get paid by these WAHM/Cs either. I know because I was blessed to have won one and I've been thoughly impressed with the product and in addition meeting a wonderful WAHM who I plan on buying from in the future. She does this all out of the goodness of her heart. I hope to some day be one of the lucky ones who gets to participate in giving something in one of her giveaways.

For all you WAHM/Cs, drop Meghan a line if you want. I'm sure she'll be happy to add you to one of her Win It Wednesdays.

This week the giveaway is from another friend of mine who does beautiful designs. Check it out!

Also, come join us on My Great Retreat, I promise you'll have fun and meet lots of fun mamas and chicks.