Happy St. Patrick's Day!

xoxo!

James, Age 2 (A Photo Word Collage)

I used Picasa to edit this photo.  Picasa is a free photo editing software that is very user-friendly.  

After uploading the photo, you click on "Text" 

Then you can chose your font (whatever fonts you have on your computer), move them around, make them bigger or smaller, and choose what color you want to use.  Then just hit "Apply" and save the picture.

*********

DIY {Paint Chip Art}

What began as a Valentine craft project turned into a broader crafty art idea.  Does that happen to you?  You start out with one goal in mind and then once you get into it, the project takes a different direction?  Originally, I collected paint chip samples in varying shades of pink and used a Martha Stewart heart punch to cut out a bunch of hearts that I planned on attaching to a single square canvas.  Since Valentine's day is all about love, I thought it would be cute to hang some hearts in our kitchen or entryway.

Then I got carried away . . . 

I ended up collecting all colors of the rainbow and punching out hearts in all of them.  The punching is easy (and quite addictive), taking just a few minutes to punch out a gazillion. And since I had more canvases, I spread them out onto four squares.

To give the art dimension, I used adhesive foam circles to affix the hearts to the canvas.  I just eyeballed the placement of the hearts and tried to keep the lines straight.  

There are 90 hearts on each canvas.  It took about 2 hours to stick 360 hearts onto these canvases.  

Then I had to figure out where to put them.  James' room? Too much on the walls already.  The hallway?  No.  But my office happily welcomed them!

Who says hearts are only for Valentine's Day?!

I'm sharing this post at Somewhat Simple.

* * * * * 

DIY (Scrabble Word Art)

I think a lot about my home.  As in, "Where can I find the perfectly sized bench to go at the end of our bed?  One that is upholstered in the right colored fabric and has legs, so that it's not too bulky, but isn't as expensive as the Crate & Barrel Colette Bench I've been coveting?  One that isn't too short and fits the size of the bed nicely."  I can get so wrapped up in searching for the perfect item for our home that I have to slow down and remind myself that the main point is,  "How do I want this house to feel?" 

It really doesn't matter how my home looks if it isn't comfortable or doesn't emanate warmth and love.   I want James to recall the home of his youth as a safe, fun place where love was bountiful.  This is also the reason I've been making such an effort to cook more, because cooking and preparing meals to serve to others is a way of showing love.  And I thoroughly enjoy how the house smells when something yummy is brewing.  Those are the smells I want my son to recall.  And hopefully, when he's older, he'll have no memory of a time when mama didn't cook.  He'll just know that mama makes the best _____.  We're still working on that part:)  Even if he only wants to eat rice and beans, night after night, for dinner now. 

I love it when friends drop by for a quick visit and end up lounging around, forgetting about what time it is and sitting and relaxing for a leisurely while.  

I love to watch kids playing and hear them giggling with delight.

I made a simple welcome sign out of Scrabble letters and placed it near our home's entryway, as a message to everyone who enters our home.  I hope you feel welcome and comfortable here. And visit often.   

I used red nail polish to paint the heart. 

*************

Organizing the BLOG

How are y'all doing with the time change?  I already love that it's staying light out later, but losing that hour of sleep is tough!



I spent all weekend (or a good part of it) cleaning up and organizing my blog.  Phew- what a job!  Not that it's hard to do, just time consuming when you have written over 500 posts (holy Cow, really?!) and you're going through them in an effort to organize.

Now, when you click on one of the buttons underneath my header, you'll see nice and tidy rows of 150x150 thumbnail pictures that you can click on to read that particular post.  Yay!  Below is an example, but you have to click the button under my header to activate the links.  (The way I configured it, you won't be able to read these pages in your reader, you have to read them directly from my blog.  I did it that way because then I can automate updating the pages, as opposed to having to copy and paste the HTML code in each time I made a change.)

**********

I used the inlinkz tool, The Link Manager, to organize my posts after seeing how Cassie (Hi Sugarplum) used it to organize her blog posts. Thank you Cassie for explaining it to me!!

You can watch a 9 minute video about how to use the tool here.

I'm planning to add another button called "Mama" that will house all my posts about fitness, fashion, beauty, and cooking.  Hope to have that up soon!

Enjoy the light!

Enhancing Your Beautiful Face with Makeup {Huda Beauty}

I don't think I've ever written a post about makeup before, but I recently came across a website that is too good not to share.  I'm by no means a makeup or product junkie for that matter, but I like to feel put together and confident, which includes wearing makeup to work.  When I was a stay-at-home-mom, I got into a really comfortable routine of barely putting on makeup during the day- which was nice actually, but now that I'm working again, I wouldn't dream of going to the office without makeup on.  I wouldn't feel  professional if I didn't have makeup on at work.  After everyone seeing me with makeup on everyday, if I suddenly showed up one day without, I'd look naked.  I know some people can pull off that fresh faced look and still look gorgeous, but not me. I just don't feel as confident.

My own makeup routine hasn't really changed much in the last 10 years, and lately I was feeling like I could be doing more to look better with some new makeup skills.  My routine had gotten down to a quickie 3 minute application that was okay, but nothing special. I see those celebrity "no makeup photos" and realize that we are all just regular gals trying to do our best to look and feel good about ourselves.   I've had my make up professionally done before, most recently for my wedding (airbrush makeup by A Perfect Face, which I highly recommend), and I loved the look.  My makeup never looks that good when I do my own.  I never use blush or bronzer and have no idea how to "contour" my face, but I really wanted to learn.

Somehow I  stumbled upon the website of Hollywood trained makeup artist and beauty consultant Huda Kattan, Huda Beauty.  She is stunning.  And after looking at her work and video tutorials, extremely talented as well.  In her videos, she applies makeup to her own face, explaining the process and techniques while she goes, as well as what brushes and products she's using.  I swear I've now watched about every single one.  And the nice thing is that they are only about 10 minutes long, so it's not a huge time commitment to learn some new makeup skills.

My favorite, practical videos are the ones about how to contour your face.  I can't believe what a difference it makes.  I put a couple others I liked here too, but you have to click the link or photo to watch the video.

How to Contour Your Face

How to Contour Your Nose

How to Get the Kim Kardashian Look

Super Natural Beauty

Now I've added contouring my face to my daily makeup routine.  It only takes about two additional minutes and I love the look.  My contour brush and powder are from Smashbox at Nordstrom ($45).

And I was inspired to buy a new eye shadow palette at Target, makeup by Sonia Kashuk ($20).

For Christmas, my sis-n-law got me the Naked eyeshadow palette by Urban Decay, which I'm also loving.

But, the one makeup tool I don't think I could live without is my EYELASH CURLER!  I curl my lashes everyday before putting on mascara and it makes the hugest difference in opening up my eyes.  I HATE it when I go out of town and forget it.  I need to buy a second one to put in my travel case so I'm never home without it. Ha!

So, are you into makeup?  Not so much?  I don't think I go overboard buying products, tending instead to stick to the tried and true (typically MAC eyeliners and brushes). 

And I'm still a mascara and lip gloss only girl on the weekends!

I hope this helps!  If you check out the videos, let me know what you think.  

DIY {Flashcard Name Sign}

Amen it's Friday!!  It's been a long week here, and I'm really looking forward to the weekend:)  Today, I've got a super simple, quickie project for ya.  I spelled James' name in flashcards and hung them in his bathroom with the cutest teeny tiny clothespins.

I found the flashcards at Anthropologie, but they also sell them on Amazon for about $11.

Each flashcard is really cute with a  letter, word and picture. 

And here are the mini clothespins I got at WalMart.  (Oh, p.s. those are my new (real) shellacked nails!  Thanks for the recommendation guys- I love them! It's been almost 2 weeks!)

I used a foam adhesive to stick on the back of the clothespin. 

And put 'er on the wall.  Easy. 

Have yourself an awesome weekend!