Thanksgiving project follow up

So, the grateful frame was a BIG SUCCESS! (Here's a link to the original post about it.) Everyone who could write participated, and it's a great keepsake. Here's what it looked like finished...



I know it's really too small for you to see any of the things that are written, so I'm going to highlight some of them.

My sister hosted the event. The back of her house has an amazing porch that goes basically the length of the house, so we were able to enjoy the Southern sunshine and eat our lunch on the porch. My sister sounded like she was listening to space aliens because she was carrying around the baby monitor turned on HIGH!! because the baby (2 months old) was napping on and off during the festivities. Fortunately she slept pretty well through the upheaval of having company around, which is why my sister wrote what she did..."When Eiley sleeps through the night."




Number 1 is almost 7 and wants to do everything by himself. Here is his contribution.



It says, "I am thankful for cars." My main squeeze asked him, "What do you mean? Toy cars? Go Kart cars?" Number 1 replied, "No, just cars, like our car." That's a pretty good explanation.

Number 2 also wanted to get in the action....Here's hers...."Thankful for Mom & Dad."



She sat with her great aunt (my dad's oldest sister visiting from GA) and practiced writing it small and neat on a scrap piece of paper until she could do it nice and neat and small. Apparently, she also taught her how to write an ampersand, because I know I've never showed her how to do this! This aunt is a teacher - middle school science. I was amazed at her patience with #2. I guess if you teach science to middle schoolers with any amount of patience, you can be patient with anyone.

This was my contribution...



I got to spend time with both of my grandpa's which is a rare occurrence for me as neither of them live nearby. It was nice to spend time talking with them and listening to them. Not a lot of people my age get to do that. So I appreciated the opportunity. (BTW - the guy in the picture is not my grandpa. It's my dad.)

Here's what Grandpa Puckett had to contribute to the poster. "I thankful for my salvation in Christ & United States of America & Family."



That's so my Grandpa Puckett...Those are the 3 most important things to him. He Loves Jesus with all his heart. He loves the USA. He's a Korean War Vet and still regularly meets with the men he served with over breakfast. And he loves his family. I know he thinks of us and prays for us. He's not sleeping in this picture...he's blessing the food before we ate.

My mom's contribution also talks about prayer.



It says, "I'm thankful for a Dad and Mom who taught me to pray." She's having to pray a lot these days. Many of them revolve around her dad - my other grandpa. He's turned 90 years old this summer and his health - well, let's just say, it's not what it used to be. He's been in and out of the emergency room and the ICU. Now he's in a step-down room, and during this visit we were able to take our whole family to see him. He brightened up when he saw us and the 3 kids. They sang "Jesus loves me" to him, and all got to hug him. My mom, along with her brothers and sisters, are having to make decisions about Grandpa's health that are not always clear cut. At one point in the journey recently, they were faced with a choice about Grandpa's course of treatment that they felt uneasy about. My mom prayed that God would change the one level they were looking at. In the morning, that number was changed, and it made the decision about the course of treatment very clear. So if you think about it, say a quick prayer for peace and health for Grandpa Steele, and wisdom and peace for those who have to take care of him.

super easy Thanksgiving project

Ok, remember the post about easy and aaahhhhmazing a few weeks ago? I said that there was no such thing as a craft that's easy and aaaahhhhmazing. Well, I was wrong. This one is totally easy and totally amazing. I saw this on Becky Higgins blog in 2 different posts (read them HERE and HERE), and I thought, "This could be COOOL!" It's a gratitude poster. Here's Becky's....




Hers is HUGE. She has let her family work on filling it up over the space of a few weeks.

Here's mine....


It's much smaller because we're only going to be filling it up on Thanksgiving day.

I did this project this afternoon while my lunch was in the oven heating up...really. Here's the list of what you'll need. You probably won't even have to buy anything, because there's a good chance you'll have it all in your craft stash already!!!

First a frame. Becky's was 20X30. Mine's 8x10, and it was the only thing I had to buy. I splurged on the $3.99 frame at Target. Call me "moneybags."

Next, you'll need a piece of poster board or cardstock cut to size.



Then, you'll need letter stickers. Becky used some large chipboard letters. I used some called "Thickers." They are about an eighth of an inch thick and are made of vinyl.



Once you've cut your cardstock to size. you need to place your word in the middle. Here's my tip to get your letters to line up. I put the bottom half of the stickers on the edge of a piece of plastic. I'm using an old stencil, but you could use anything. In the past I've used the shiny plastic piece that came in some product packaging. The idea is just to get your letters lined up using the straight edge.


I also have an old Creative Memories cutting mat that has a grid on it that I use to help me keep things straight because I can see the lines through the plastic. I would highly recommend getting a work mat like this.

After you have all your stickers lined up on the plastic, center the stickers on the cardstock. Hold down the top half of the stickers and slide the plastic off the bottom of the stickers, one at a time. They stay in place!!! Do it slow, and you can do minor adjustments along the way!



You can put a final touch on it by adding the date and occasion in your own gorgeous handwriting. I put it on the left side like this because I didn't quite center my letters right, and there was a bit more space on that side than the other. I didn't start over...I'm embracing imperfection!



When you put the frame together, Put the glass in under the cardstock to give everyone something solid to write on.

I'm going to have this standing up next to the food buffet on Thanksgiving day with an instruction card and some pens. I'll probably give it to my sister as a thank you gift for hosting the big meal at her house, even though she has a 2 month old baby! Love you Becky! Although she'll probably read this post and realize I only spent $3.99 on this gift....hmmmm.....

I'll post an "after" pic next week. Happy Thanksgiving everyone!
2 Corinthians 9:15 "Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift!"

Swag...what?

Every once in a while, people ask me "What are Swagbucks?" Sometimes they see it pop up on my Facebook page, and they wonder what it is. Well here's a rundown on Swagbucks, and why I like it!

Swagbucks works like a search engine - like google or yahoo - you search whatever you'd search on the internet, but instead of going to google.com, you go to swagbucks.com and do your internet search. (For those of you who use a window in your search bar, swagbucks has a search bar that you can download) Then at random intervals, they will award "Swagbucks" for using them to search the internet. The bucks range from 7 to 100. I think the highest I've ever gotten was 50. I can't see a pattern. It appears to be totally random.

They keep track of how many bucks you've earned, and after a while you can buy stuff at the Swag store, and they ship it to you for free. Yeah. Free. I've gotten Starbucks gift cards, Target gift cards, cds, a vocal evaluation and lesson from a voice teacher in San Francisco (that was fun!). There are also clothing, jewelry, and electronics. I think I'm actually going to get my brother in law his Christmas present using my Swagbucks.

There are other ways you can earn swagbucks - special offers, watching videos, searching for codes, taking polls, sweepstakes (called swagstakes), but honestly, I don't really do those so much. I just search online. I've earned 800 swagbucks in the past 2 months. I can get Swagbucks when my friends sign up (it's called a referral), so if earning free stuff just for hanging out online sounds like something you'd like to try, then click the "sign up" link in the "swidget" below or click on one of my facebook posts. All you have to give them is an email, and they don't hardly ever send you anything. Only when they need to.

If you don't want to see my Facebook posts from swagbucks, click on the x by my swagbucks status and click "hide Swagbucks" (not hide Sarah...you'll never see me again if you do!)

Try it! Get free stuff!

Does Chirbit work for what I want it to do?

I've been trying to figure out a way to share audio on Facebook, twitter and my blog, and I want to do it for free...that's not asking too much, is it?

I found www.chirbit.com, and they say it will do what I want it to do....



Check this out on Chirbit

Let me know if you can hear my son singing....(this was about 2 and a half years ago!)

Can it be easy and aaahhhhmazing?

I'm convinced the words "easy" and "ahhhhmazing" do not ever happen for me at the same time.....ever.

Case in point. I saw this Halloween goody bag idea....



Cute, right? Monster Eyeball stickers on top of Reeces cups! I'm in love!
I found the picture on my friend Wendy's blog, and she found it on the itiswhatitis blog.


It was supposed to be so easy.....
Buy the pack of stickers for a dollar at Michaels.
Buy Reece's on the BOGO sale at Publix
Use the goody bags I already had.
Download and print the tag free from the Beth Proudfoot blog
slap the stickers on the candy, stuff them in the bag, and DONE.....easy and aaaaahhhhhmazing!



Well....I missed the BOGO sale. But I still had coupons, so I bought the candy.
I couldn't find the stickers ANYWHERE! I went to 3 different Michaels, Hobby Lobby and 2 different Targets. I pulled up a picture of the stickerbook on my phone (like a giant nerd) and all they could say is "Uhhhhhhh....no." Thanks.

Then I thought about googley eyes. I could cut out 2 different size circles out of cardstock with my handy dandy punches, glue them all on top of each other, and put them on top of the candy. Easy and ahhhhhmazing! Except for the fact I couldn't get the eyes to stick to the cardstock or the cardstock stick to the candy without pouring on a TON of glue....not good for candy. And besides, they just looked flat....

I went to one last Michael's store in search of the elusive and ahhhmazing eyeball stickers, and I found adhesive glittery foam sheets in halloween colors. PERFECT! I could still punch them out with the punches, and it would have the dimension that the cardstock lacked....aaaaahhhhmazing! Except for the fact that the foam was too thick to fit into my punches. My circle cutters (creative memories circa 2002) were not sharp enough to cut the foam. So you know what I did? I drew 200 circles in 4 different sizes and cut them out by hand. Not easy, and sort of amazing....just don't look too close. It took me 6 and a half hours. NOT the way I had intended to spend my Thursday night.

Here's how they turned out. They are kinda cute. But I'm convinced that all these craft bloggers are lying to us. It can't be as easy as they make it sound.

My Solemn Oath

I, Sarah, do solemnly swear not to partake in the excessive sugar that the upcoming holidays are known for. I know the season of temptation begins TOMORROW! Halloween - a holy eve before a season full of indulgent temptations. Because I know I am an "all or nothing" kinda girl, I promise not to eat, sample, taste test, do quality control checks, or in any other way take candy from my children's trick or treat buckets. If I choose to break this oath, I know the consequences. It will send me immediately into a downward spiral of sugar overload that will not be stopped until after Easter 2011, and it will cause my derriere to look like this.....





or possibly even this....




(BTW - I acknowledge that each of these people are perfect and wonderful just the way they are - i just don't need to become like them :o)

To help me do this, I will dutifully keep foods and drinks of a healthy sort with me, so that when my mouth salivates for a Reeces cup or a little box of milk duds, I will...ahem...sip...I mean, choke down...water from my re-usable bottle....sigh....and dream of the high and limitless metabolism that I've always dreamed of.

I solemnly swear these things in front of my blog readers and all my friends, so help me (please help me...I'm gonna need it) God.

10 weeks left in 2010

I read a blog post that said there are 10 more weeks in 2010.

what....

Where did this year go?
I'm just getting used to writing 2010 and saying "twenty ten" (or is it "two thousand ten"?)
And I approached this year with all the vim and vigor and excitement, and I had all these big goals......

and honestly, I can't remember even one of them....

I guess that's not completely true. I picked a word - one little word - to focus my year. My word was "streamlined." I had hoped to make my world a little less frantic and a little more focused and efficient.

I even did a scrapbook page to motivate myself...



Did it work? Maybe a little bit, but that's a post for another day.

So in an effort to accomplish my goal of "streamlining" my life, and to feel a sense of accomplishment as I finish out 2010, here are 10 things I want to accomplish before the end of 2010.

1) organize the boys' closet - Not a small feat, but actually it's halfway done. I've gone through all of #3's clothes. Now I need to go through #1's and sort through all the junk that needs to find its way outside my house.

2) organize our closet. That's easier said than done because it means that my main squeeze and I are going to have to be in the closet cleaning and organizing at the same time, and let's just say, we have 2 completely different approaches to that task. I don't want our marriage to end before the end of the year.....hmmm...fortunately, my main squeeze also is in the mood to organize, so it may not be as bad as anticipated.

3) have a yard sale to get rid of JUNK! - I really need to un-junk our house. For the first 6 years of our marriage we would move every year or 2 or 3. I really hated packing and unpacking so much that if I didn't really like it, I threw it out so I wouldn't have to pack or unpack. Now that we've been in the same location for 4 years, I find myself wanting to pick out a new house just so I can get rid of JUNK!!!! I'm not sure which is harder buying/selling/moving into a new house or organizing....

4) finish the kids 2008 scrapbooks - 2 years behind, but I'm so close!!!

5) make a chore chart/system for our kids that works....I have an idea that I'm going to try. We have things we expect our children to do, and we expect them to pitch in and help with things that need help. I would love some system that's easy to use, that works, and that motivates and rewards kids for taking an active role in making our home nice to live in. Any ideas/suggestions? I'd love to hear them!

6) record the kids singing and talking... I have the most adorable recordings of my kids talking and singing when I first got my computer - Helga. It was almost 3 years ago. I was intrigued by Garage Band, but I haven't recorded them hardly at all since. I need to do that again. Especially for #3. I love hearing #3 talk....

7) make a Disney fotobook - Fotobooks is an app inside of Facebook where you can make a 5x7 paper back "brag book style" photo book for $5 using the pictures you and your friends upload to Facebook. It is really great. It has to have a minimum of 18 pictures and it can hold a maximum of 54 (I believe). The pages are pre-designed and very trendy looking, graphically speaking. All you do is put your pix in order, and pretty much the rest is done for you. I uploaded hundreds of pix from our Disney to my facebook profile, and I want to make each kid a book they can keep in their room with pictures of them at Disney, and for $5, it's a great little souvenir. Who wants me to do a step by step tutorial of how to make one? Leave me a comment!

8) lose 15 lbs - this is a small step toward a bigger goal. Acutally if I don't go into the holidays with a "diet mentality," I overindulge from October to February, and pay for it all year long. NOT THIS YEAR!!!!

9) Paint a quote in our front hall - I've wanted to do this for a while, but I'm a big chicken. It's gonna look great when I do though.

10) Have Christmas meaningful/thoughtful Christmas presents....not just the easiest or cheapest thing. I love getting just the right thing - an unexpected, thoughtful gesture that makes people smile. Unfortunately, I don't know what that is for most of my people yet.....

Ok, so those are my 10 things. Do you have 10 things? Do you think any of my 10 things are CRAZY? I'd love to hear your thoughts!