Clara's Little Touches

There's nothing I love more, than seeing all of Clara's little touches around the house.  A couple of her dollhouse dolls sitting on the TV console, her baby doll left in her toy shopping cart, the crayons all lined up in a row, and always.. always her play food hanging around on various tables, shelves, the ottoman. 

She loves to serve us all food, have tea parties, and picnics.  It makes me happy when after she goes to bed, and I'm straightening a few things around the house.. and come back out into the living room to relax after getting my pajamas on.. I see this leftover from a picnic we had.

I love her and her imagination.

Our Furry New Addition

So we've been waiting a very long 7/8 weeks for this little guy.  My husband has been wanting a dog since we had to leave our other one with a different sweet family three years ago.  And the opportunity to take home this little guy was just too perfect to pass up.. One of my husbands friends breeds his dogs and let us have our pick.. and our landlord said we didn't have to pay a pet deposit (I guess because we're just awesome tenants!).. kind of like it was meant to be.

And here he is... a beautiful 8 week old pure bred chocolate lab.

Introducing... Wesson! 

Yes... Wesson.. as in Smith & Wesson.  It's "my husbands dog" so he got full pick of gender/dog/name.  ;)  He's sweet and loveable.  With that cute little face you can't be too mad at.  He's a massive puppy, for being only 8 weeks old.  Massive.  My husband plans on training him for duck hunting.  Seriously though... look at that face..

And he's a good little BFF for Clara.  :)  She's so excited every day to come home and take him outside.  She loves when he gets excited to see her and sniffs and licks her.  It will be so cute to watch them grow together!

And I'll be happy once he's fully trained.  I basically feel like I have two toddlers running around the house.  But it sure does make things more interesting around here, having him with us. 

Yoplait vs. Chobani Taste-Off

This post is sponsored by Yoplait, but the best Greek yogurt was determined by me... and Clara.

I've been given the fun chance to participate in the Yoplait vs. Chobani Greek Taste-Off.  First of all, let me tell you that I've never been a huge fan of greek yogurt.  Unless it was in a smoothie or something.  But my child, well, she pretty much lives on yogurt.  I don't even want to tell you how much yogurt she eats.  So she did the taste-off with me.  :)

This is what we were working with...

I liked how Chobani had the bigger chunks of fruit, but Clara liked that Yoplait had hardly any big fruit chunks (she's not a fan of the chunks.. I think it's just a texture thing for her).  Chobani was also a lot thicker. 

She takes her yogurt very seriously, if you can't tell.  ;)  In the end, both of our votes go to Yoplait... definitely the best greek yogurt.  It was creamy and delicious.  It was a little sweeter than the Chobani, and we have a sweet tooth, so it definitely made us lean toward that one more.  Also, it didn't taste like Greek yogurt normally tastes... which is a plus for us, since we're not big on greek yogurt anyway!  Clara ate it up, and I'd definitely buy it for her again (and probably will.. yogurt is a staple in our house because of her!).

Have you tried either of these yogurts?  Which one do you prefer, or which one do you think you'd prefer?

Project Life; Week 1

So I finally finished my first week for 2014 last week.  I've figured it's inevitable for me to always be about a month behind.  And that's okay with me.. I don't want to stress about it, or feel like it has to get done now.  This is something that's really enjoyable for me, and a creative outlet, and I don't want to ruin that.  :)

It's pretty difficult for me to get anything accomplished for it during the week, so I usually do it all on the weekends.  It's not my favorite spread, however, life's not perfect so I guess this can't be either.

Here the left side;

And the right side;

I used a lot of things from the Studio Calico kit that I'm subscribed to.  I will go into detail in another post about all the basics I bought to get started on Project Life.  :)

On this card I just drew the arrows by hand and cut them out since I didn't have any veneer arrows on hand.  I like the the hand-drawn look of it and I think it adds a nice touch!



Does anyone else do Project Life?  Let me see your layouts!

Project Life; 2014 Cover Page

I've been doing Project Life since about the middle of last year or so, and I love it.  I've tried the traditional scrapbook before, but (quickly) gave up on that, as it was too much work for me.  But Project Life is a whole other story.

It's a much simpler approach to scrapbooking.  You can make it as simple or as involved as you want.  For the basics, all you need is a 12x12 binder, some photo pocket pages, photos, and a core kids or some fun cards to put in the pockets.  All of these basics can be found at Michaels and on Amazon (and hey, you can use 40% off coupons on them at Michaels!).

You can do it however you life.  Document your every day life, your goals, your vacations, make it into a baby book, etc.  Mix in some journaling with the photos so you can remember those special moments.  There are endless options.

I've also signed up for Studio Calico's monthly Project Life kits... they come with some super fun embellishments that I love sticking into my layouts.  If you're interested in signing up for that, go here.  :)

And so here is my very first page for 2014.  My cover page..

I put on some of my resolutions, and a recent family photo.. I also put where we are located, because who knows if we'll be living in the same place come next year.  ;)  Brightened it up with a few embellishments and some fun cards.

This set of ultra fine point permanent markers is one of my favorite things.. I love the color selection... and they write so well!

I don't know if I'll do one spread a week, or combine two weeks.. I'm thinking I'll just end up 'going with the flow'.. as I don't want to feel pressure to do this, and want to keep it fun.  More than likely, I'll probably do 2 weeks at a time.. unless it's a really busy and fun week with a lot going on.  ;)  I plan on sharing my spreads when I get them done each week or every other week.

Do any of you do Project Life?  If so, leave a link to your spreads in the comments.. I'd love to take a look and leave you some love!  :)

Hello 2014

Life is what you make of it.  It's so true... and this year will be a great year.  I hope you all had a safe and happy New Year.  Ours was laid back, just the way I like it.  Now everyone's making resolutions and goals for 2014... and in a way, I guess I am too.. but more-so a continuation of the past years... mostly just things that I should constantly try to be doing, regardless of a New Year.  But, I really just like the cliche sound of "starting fresh" at the beginning of a year... anyway..

:: We are continuing our Dave Ramsey "Total Money Makeover" and plan on being at least 90% debt free (if not completely) by the end of this year.  Hopefully I can get around to doing a blog post on what's working for us.

::  "I have learned that I will not change the world. Jesus will do that. I can, however, change the world for one person. So I keep stopping and loving one person at a time. Because this is my call as a Christian."  -Katie Davis.  This. 

::  Make more time for myself.  It's essential for not only my sanity.. but for me to be the best wife and mama that I can be.  That 'me-time' will include a lot more reading.  I'm a book worm at heart, and haven't taken the time to do much of it lately.

:: Spend more time in prayer and in the Bible.  And Proverbs 31.

:: Try not to worry or care about the small things.  Running late?  Totally not the end of the world.. I'll try not to get stressed and frustrated.

:: Finish what I start.  I've been doing Project Life for a bit less than a year now.  And I'm really excited to start fresh on it in this new year.  I plan to share many posts about it - I will share my 2014 cover page very soon! 

::  Organization and cleaning out the junk.   I wanted to start the year out clean.  I've started cleaning and organizing our house room by room.. getting rid of the junk that hasn't been used or played with in ages (or just packing it away for storage if it's sentimental, or I need to keep it for future use).  I started this already, and I started with Clara's room and our spare room.. aka, our catch-all room.. and I've put away/done away with so much stuff already.  It feels so GOOD.

Do you have any goals or resolutions for this year?  Or anything you hope to accomplish, big or small?