Giveaway Winner—Me!

Recently I entered a blog giveaway at Yours Truly. Anna makes some super cute cards and she was giving away a set of her new card design, a flamingo! The flamingo is so cute and screamed, “Florida  Summer,” to me. In the end, I won the giveaway! I was excited to find a cute package arrive in my mail one day. Anna wrapped the cards up nicely and her handwriting on my package was fun. I haven’t decided who will be the recipient of these cards yet. Part of me wants to save them as a gift and part of me wants to sit down and write a bunch of cards and mail them. Don’t you like getting mail? Well, at least mail that isn’t a bill?

Cute flamingo cards

Check out Anna’s shop for lots of other fun cards and prints that she has available. I bought some of her Grateful cards at a Homespun Chic Marketplace show once. Every time I give one of those cards, the person responds with how much they love the card!

My Take: T-shirt to Workout Tank

Another idea I saw floating around on Pinterest and finally tried out myself: The T-shirt to Workout Tank

DIY Tank Top T-shirt Makeover

This morning I was trying to find something to wear to the gym and I decided to try this out real quick. It was quick too! Just a few cuts with the scissors and I turned an oversized t-shirt of Big Monkey’s into a workout tank for me. This project was FREE thanks to using a t-shirt from our stash of shirts! Since it was so quick and I was needing to finish getting the littles ready to go, I didn’t take any before or during photos. And the after photos were done on my phone by Little Monkey, after working out.

My Workout Tank

Back of the workout tank. The only problem I found with this workout tank was the knot in the back. It is fine, until you try and do sit ups!

Want to make your own? Check out Dollar, Sense & More for the tutorial!

My Take: Where We’re From

You’ve probably seen plenty of map crafts floating around the blogosphere and of course on Pinterest. I had spotted a few ideas I liked but hadn’t made any until a couple of weeks ago. My mom had a big birthday coming up and although she didn’t ask for any gifts, I wanted to make her something I knew she would love. How could I decide on the perfect gift you ask? I stalked her Pinterest boards and found a few ideas I really liked and thought I could make. I narrowed it down finally to the “Where We’re From” map people idea.

I took a look at a few blogs that had already made their own versions and decided the best way would be to get my hands on some real maps. I needed some Florida maps and a Massachusetts map. Seeing that we live in Florida, I figured those would be easy to come by. I was wrong.

I ended up first finding a Massachusetts map at a thrift store for 15cents. Next I found an old road atlas at another thrift store for 50cents. Since I needed multiple cities in Florida, I needed to get at least one more Florida map. I found out that our local driver’s license office has a AAA guy who gives out maps. Perfect! We stopped in there and were able to grab two Florida maps for free!

I hunted around the internet trying to find a template for cutting the little people out but kept coming up empty. I’m not much of an artist but I managed to draw some little people up and used them to trace out spots on the map to cut out. Each little person represents a different member of our family and the area of the map they are made up of includes the city that they were born in.

After lining the people up on a spare canvas I had on hand, I decided to paint the white canvas black so that the people would stand out better. Once the paint dried (two coats), I set up my people and used some Mod Podge to glue them into place. I decided to add our family’s name to the top and thanks to my Dad’s suggestion, the year we were established (Mom and Dad’s Anniversary Year). I used some vinyl and the Cricut to cut the letters and numbers out. Once they were applied to the canvas I added another layer of Mod Podge to fully seal the project.

My Take: Where We’re From

I love how it turned out and the birthday girl loved it too! It is a great personalized gift that you can make for many different occasions. I have another version swirling around in my head but I need to find some maps that are closer to street level to really make it work well. (I know I could just print the maps but I really love the idea of using the old maps and all the different colors and textures they come with.)

Our Take: Sponge Balls

I’d seen this idea on Pinterest and thought it could be fun to make with Little Monkey. This weekend he will be having two friends spend the night so I thought it would be the perfect time to try it out. We decided a test run was in order to make sure we had it figured out. I looked at two different tutorials and then we did what worked best for us. I did find 12 packs of sponges at Walgreens for $2.99. The scissors and twine we had on hand. I’m also thinking fishing line might work well but I couldn’t find any tonight.

Supplies for Sponge Balls

First we cut the sponges in half long ways and then in half again, making four pieces out of each sponge. One blog had used 16 pieces of sponge to make their ball and the other used just 8. I thought we’d try with 12 to start.

First try…..

When we went to tie the twine around them, it didn’t really work out very well. So we decided to back down to 8 pieces.

Second try…..

The next step is to take a little bit of twine and tie a super tight knot right around the center of the stack. Make a double knot (or heck even a triple knot if you want) and then check out your new sponge ball.

Finished and ready for testing!

You can move the sponge pieces around a little bit to make the ball shape a little better. We took the sponge ball out to the pool and filled it up with water. To show Little Monkey how it worked, we tossed it over to the deck where water came gushing out. Little Monkey thought it was great! I can’t wait to make more when the boys come over this weekend. I think we’ll play with them in the pool and see if we can make up some crazy games to play too!

Book Review: Life Without Limits:Inspiration for a Ridiculously Good Life

Life Without Limits

I can’t believe I haven’t posted about this book! I saw part of a talk that Nick Vujicic gave at Northland Church (Thanks to the power of online worship viewing.). After seeing part of it and finding out he had a book, I knew I wanted to read it. I immediately went online to our library and reserved the only copy that is in our county. A few days later it arrived at my local library and I picked it up. I read through it pretty quickly, as it was a book that I just had to know what happens next. I’ve recently been on a  kick of reading true stories/biography type books and this one is amazing. Just to see how positive Nick is after the obstacles that he has to deal with; it makes much in my own life seem trivial. Sure he had many times of struggle and depression but he has seen the light at the other end and has an amazing faith in God.

Nick has another book coming out later this year and I look forward to reading it. If you need to read an uplifting book, check this one out. You will be amazed by what Nick has accomplished in his life with no arms and no legs.

Tan your Feet

While shopping in a few thrift stores today, I ran across an item that I didn’t even know existed. Who would’ve thought that you need something like this to tan your feet at home. Couldn’t you just go outside and put your feet in the sun?

Only $5 and the tootsie tanner can be yours!! Or just go outside and use the sun. Would you really only tan your feet? I do not understand this product at all.