Feeling Crafty!

Well, I'm back! Two days in a row, which is miraculous for me...lol!

I shared this monogram I bought to make a wreath out of in yesterday's post and told you I would show you how it turned out today. So, here it is! I chose to paint it a shade of aqua blue. Big surprise I know! I added a bow I made from burlap ribbon and called it done. Here it is on my door.

I also told you I would share something I got in the mail. I love happy mail! I recently installed an app on my phone called Chatbooks, It pulls photos from my Instagram accounts and when I have 60 photos that I approve of to be printed, they publish them in a little book and send it to me. They are just a few dollars and you can get your first one free with this code if you are interested....2URKUYWF.

You can title your series. See mine below....

This will print on the spine of each book along with the volume number and the dates of the first and last photo they use in the book. I started my IG account a few years ago but didn't use it much until the past few months. Now I have two IG accounts. You can find me here....@jovic4 or @vickyshappyplace

Here's the cover I chose. My kids look so much younger here!

And here you can see the size of the book. I can't wait to have a few on my shelf! I love the idea of printing these random photos from my daily life. How cool will it be to look back in the years to come. :)

I came home today to more happy mail. My Wal Mart Beauty Box came today. This one had some pretty nice products inside. If you're interested in subscribing, just google it. They are delivered quarterly and are only $5 each. I like trying new products but hate it when I buy a full size of something only to dislike the product. This gives me a chance to try products before I spend money on them. Sometimes they send full size products. My last box had a nice tube of lipstick...I just strongly disliked the color! 

Moving on, I also had some stickers in the mail today! I love stickers for my planners and my Project Life album. These are so pretty....they are by Simple Stories, the I AM collection. I put them under the lamp so you could see the gold foil. 

Speaking on planners and Project Life, here are my weekly layouts in my Kate Spade desk planner and my Color Crush personal planner. I decided to go with a fall theme in the Kate Spade, even though it doesn't feel much like fall here in Florida. We have had a few glimpses of fall recently though and that gives me home that it is on the way!

I just love this week in my personal size. Isn't that book washi tape the cutest ever? My friend, Heather was kind enough to share. I wrote book quotes on each date. I still need to finish filling in all my to do's for the week.

I also wanted to share the Project Life pages I worked on over the weekend. I want to document Sadie's life so I had several pictures printed from the time she was a puppy. Oh, how I miss that sweet baby face!

Sorry about the glare in some of these.

Cute or what?

Well folks....that's a wrap! I seriously need to get to work grading some tests and finishing some paperwork for school. I will be at school tomorrow but have meetings throughout the day so I had to leave plans for a sub. I detest writing sub plans! I hope your Monday was marvelous and your Tuesday is too!

Until next time.....

A Birthday & Some Thrifty Finds!

Hello and happy Sunday! 

Today is one of my favorite days of the year...it's my daughter, Miranda's birthday! She's 26 today! So hard to believe! I found an old picture (she was 3 here...we took her to Disney World after her birthday) of her to post on Facebook, along with a recent one taken of her yesterday. She is across the world in Vienna, Austria this weekend for her birthday. What a sweet way to celebrate!

Happy Birthday Miranda....I love you!

Anywho, I haven't blogged about my thrifty finds in a long time. Perhaps because I hardly ever visit the thrift stores these days. My junk decor collection was taking over my house and I was not happy about it. I have always been super organized but it is difficult to organize when you don't have space to put things! Over the summer I donated a ton of stuff and I am slowly going through things again and getting rid of more stuff. 

I do have three things I have thrifted recently. The first one is this like new acrylic drink dispenser. I am going to keep water in it in the fridge. It does not leak...yay! It was $1.49.

I also bought this vintage Parisian Prints linen dish towel. It still had the sticker on it but when I tried to peel it off, it literally disintegrated. I thought this might make a cute runner in a tablescape. It was $1.29.

The only other used thrifty find I have to share is this huge, solid wood tray. I found it at the Goodwill yesterday when my sister, Nancy and I went shopping. It was $4.99 but well worth the cost. I am trying to decide what I am going to do for a makeover! Maybe paint and decoupage!

Here it is full of some of my other finds from yesterday. Keep scrolling if you want to see what I bought!

I got a great deal on these two burlap beach bags at Wal Mart. They are really big and so cute! They have a change purse attached as well. They were originally almost $9 each but I got them for $2 each. I love the compass rose.

The anchor is really pretty...notice it is seagulls!

The other thing I got from Wal Mart were these two packs of folders. They are designed by Sadie Robertson who is on the show Duck Dynasty. She has her own line of stationery products out. I bought her sticky note collection over the summer because I thought they were so pretty. I was surprised Wal Mart had these folders. There are three in each pack and they were clearanced to $0.75 per pack. I am planning to cut some of the down and frame them for my craft room. I love the prints and love that her line of products is scripture based!

On to my crafty finds! I found this huge tape runner and refill on clearance at Beall's Outlet. I gave about $5 for both of them. The runner runs around $14 and the refills around $10 normally, so this was a fantastic deal! I also bought a few other tools at Michael's. I got the craft tweezers I've been wanting with a 50% off coupon. I also bought a small, portable paper cutter and some scrapbooking adhesive. I got 15% off everything else I bought too, including sale items, using my teacher discount. I just realized I forgot to share my awesome new punch for 3X4 journaling cards and photos! 

I bought some stickers too...the gold glitter Thickers came from Michael's, the party borders from the Dollar Tree, and the other three packs from Wal Mart. Two of the Wal Mart packs were on clearance for $0.75 each.

I bought this monogram from Michael's for my front door. It is time to take my other wreath down and I thought this would make a great wreath. Trying to decide what color to paint it! I hope to complete that little project this afternoon and share it tomorrow!

I was thrilled to find these two journaling card kits on clearance at Wal Mart for $4 each. One is a travel theme and the other a birthday/celebration pack. 

Michael's had their paper pads for 70% off yesterday as a Door Buster sale. I got another 15% off that as well, so I got this beautiful pad for just over $5! It will make gorgeous cards for my Project Life spreads. I have been wanting this set forever and was thrilled they actually had it yesterday and for such an amazing price!

I also bought some of their sticker books for my planners. They are only $1 each so I got them for $0.85 each. There are tons of stickers in them and they are just too cute!

I bought this set of  silver rhinestones from the dollar bins. It was $1.50. I use them on my journaling cards to add a little bling here and there.

My big purchase of the day was this pretty new comforter and shams. It was on clearance at Beall's Outlet. I fell in love with the grey background and the bright colors in the flowers! I have had a duvet on an old comforter on my bed for a while and I just didn't like it. I love the light weight of this new one. 

Here's a close up of the design. All my favorite colors!

The reverse is striped...you can see in the photo below.

The only other purchase yesterday, besides groceries and some soap from Bath & Body Works, was this adorable Betsey Johnson make-up bag. I have been wanting a new one for a while now and could not pass this one up at Beall's Outlet. I love Betsey Johnson items for the bright, fun patterns. They are usually a little too pricey for me, but this little bag was just $7.99. It goes for at least $20 when I looked it up online!

When I got home yesterday, I had three pieces of happy mail! First up was this adorable set of journaling cards and matching ephemera for my Project Life pages. It is so pretty! I ordered it from Amazon.

Next was this set of durable clear plastic bags I ordered to organize all my journaling cards in. I will share that on the blog tomorrow....hopefully! I will also share the third happy mail item with you tomorrow. 

If you stuck around to see all my thrifty finds and awesome deals, thank you! I also want to thank you for all your sweet comments you have left me. I am trying not to beat myself up if I don't have time to reply to everyone. I do appreciate your kind words and hope to have time to start replying more again soon. It is difficult to find time to do all the things I love and enjoy doing these days.....blogging (and replying), reading and commenting on your blogs, play in my happy place, keep a house, be a good wife and mom, read, not to mention work full time! So....please forgive me if I fail to reply. I try to answer questions and reply when I have the time. You all are the best! I pray each of you has a blessed and beautiful week!

Until next time.....

Project Life and Catching Up!

Hello there! 

How are you on this beautiful day? I truly hope you are doing well! 

Once again, it's been a couple weeks since I posted, so I am going to share what's been happening in my life lately.

Last night was the hubby's 30 Year Class Reunion! Wow...that means mine is just a couple years away! Anywho, it was a wonderful evening even though only a few of the classmates could make it. We had such a nice time catching up with friends and sharing what's going on in our lives. 

The hubby bought a new "toy"! It's a Volkswagen rail buggy and it's street legal. He has promised me our first little road trip will be to a local area called Shired Island. I want to take some sunset photos! He has a few things to do with it, but isn't it cute? 

I have been busy trying to catch up on life...both at work and home! I am finally feeling like I am getting there. Today I had time to "play" in my happy place!

This is what I was doing!

I am so excited about my latest hobby! I have been watching tons of YouTube videos about the Project Life process and I was thrilled to start on it today. I got a great deal on my supplies to get started at Michael's on Friday. I went in to purchase just a box of the page protectors with my 50% off coupon, but they had the albums for 60% off, so I got the two albums and the box of page protectors for just a couple dollars more than the page protectors normally cost! I love the design on these two albums!

This lovely saying is on the inside of the album on the hard plastic page protector piece. I feel that I already cultivate a good life, but I wasn't so good about recording it. I plan to change that! My goal is to document my life through these photo & journaling spreads. I want to do a page every week or two of just random moments in life. I will also create spreads for special occasions. 

My first spread is my recent trip to Mexico Beach. I love the way the pages turned out! You can click on them to enlarge if you want to see a closer image.

I created 4 pages using photos from my trip. I am pleased with how my first attempt at Project Life style turned out. Let me know what you think.

I also had time to clean up and organize in my craft room today. I found this beautiful box at Tuesday Morning to hold my washi tapes. I LOVE this stuff and use it in my planner every week and will also use it in my Project Life albums.

You can see it on the side of my desk in the photo below.

I also reorganized my Raskog cart. The top tray holds all my journaling cards and a few other items. The middle holds various planner supplies and punches. The bottom holds my paper cutter, a large punch, and my fall and Christmas stickers and supplies.

I think I shared my planner obsession in an earlier post as well. I am still going strong with this and love decorating and filling in my planners each week. This first one is my Happy Planner. I won it a few months ago in an Instagram giveaway. I already had my desk planner and my purse planner on the way, so I decided to use this one to document blessings and happy moments in my life and well as recording who and what I am praying for. This week, all my planners are dedicated to Miranda since she turns 26 on the 27th! I can hardly believe my "baby" girl is that old! We'll be celebrating via Skype on the big day!

My desk planner has a garnet and gold theme for her alma mater, Florida State University. The feather washi along the bottom represents the Seminoles. It's very simple but I love how these pages turned out. I will fill things in as the week goes on. So far, this week is pretty empty!

This is my personal size planner. It finally came in a few weeks ago. It is a Webster's Pages Color Crush planner. I carry it in my purse. Isn't it pretty?

Sprinkle washi tape  and cupcakes adorn these little pages. I am thinking about turning this one into a wallet/planner. That's what a lot of people do and I like the idea. We'll see!

Earlier today, I went up to the pasture to see if I could get some photos of my Uncle's new baby calf to send him. He and my Aunt Loretta are out west visiting with all their sons (all 8 of them) and their families. The calf was born after they left. I thought I would show you a picture of the little cutie too.

He is such a pretty boy!

While I was up there, I snapped this random photo and thought it turned out so pretty. I added a nice quote to it. See the reddish blur under the words, if you truly? That's one of the big cows!

I hope you enjoyed this random post. I wanted to thank those of you who are taking time to visit Miranda's blog. She has enjoyed you following along on her journey! She is doing so great! I admit I was missing her terribly yesterday, but today was better. Christmas will be here before I can turn around and I don't want to rush life by. So, I am being patient and enjoying any correspondence I can with her. Hope you have a blessed and beautiful week!

Until next time.....