Sew what?

I may have broken my sewing machine last night...and my heart. I got so flustered while trying to fix it that I just gave up. Hopefully, today will be better and I'll get it back up and running. I really want to complete a skirt by week's end and I'm not hand stitching the thing.

Inheritance

When I married Mr. Ber, I inherited a lot of great people I get to call my family. I'm truly blessed and I love them all. Specifically, I'm honored to know and call Mr. Ber's cousins Sara, Ashton, and Justin family. Ashton is a hilarious lady and has a great blog that I wanted to share with you all. Head on over and show her some love!

Happily Ever Laughter

Go. Do. Create and enjoy!

Of course I can sew!

What was I thinking?? I'm no seamstress. I can make a cute little girl's dress out of fabric that's already been shirred and I can sew a button back onto your shirt. On a good day, I'll fix that seam that ripped.

I've been wanting a yoga style maxi skirt for a while now. I can only imagine it would be as comfy as my yoga pants. I found a super easy tutorial and had to give it a go. Armed with my sewing machine, my directions, and my fabric, I went at it and I failed. I failed not once, but twice. The only thing that came out of it was realizing I can make the fold over style yoga waistband. 

I decided to go about it a different way and went and bought a couple of patterns for different style skirts and I'm going to try adding the waistband to one of those. Hopefully, this next one will be successful. 

What are some of your biggest disasters? Did you push forward anyway?

Go. Do. Create and enjoy!

Birthday Weekend

Sadly, the mermaid party extravaganza did not go as planned. Mr. Ber ended up becoming very ill this last week and, at the last minute, I started feeling ill. I feel bad that the "party" didn't go the way that I had planned, but it didn't seem to phase Adele. We wanted to keep it small, anyway. Here are a few pictures from the day. 

I believe we can safely say she enjoyed herself. That's all that matters in the end.

Eclectic is just a prettier word for crazy

You read that right. I've always said I was eclectic, not just my style but also my personality. I'm not saying that I'm crazy, but I like such a wide range of styles and things that I'm not entirely sure how to blend them all together. 

One of my favorite stores sits behind my store and I often spend my hour lunches there; looking for new arrivals and sales. It's Hobby Lobby. Honestly, I just love the store and the ideas that are sparked when I am there. This past visit, I decided to take some pictures of items that spoke to me in one way or another. Enjoy my "eclectic" style!

I love these colors and the design.

I love these pieces on the left. Thinking of this for future living room redesign.

I'm not crazy about the lamp base, but those shades! I love the color and that pattern!

 

Aren't they beautiful?? So romantic! I want for the master bedroom.

Adorable! I have a soft spot in my heart for over sized utensils.

These reminded me of my husband and would work wonderfully in our master now.

From the base to the shades and the color, I love these!

When we build my craft room, I'd love to have these holding all my odds and ends.

What little girl wouldn't want this in her room? I love the different patterns and how well they work together.

Those fans! I think the blue would work in the design I have in mind for the living room.

Love, love, love the color and shape!

Again with the color and I love the distressed look.

The green screams Mr. Ber.

I love this girly mirror. Wouldn't it look great over the settee?

I don't even know where I'd put one of these, but I love them!

For our daughter's room. We're going with a Parisian theme.

I love the washed out color. Crazy since I also love bright and vibrant. The grey really caught my eye; again something to use in the living room.

Like I said, I like a wide variety of designs and styles. I think I've finally decided on a "theme" for the living room and I'm working on one for the master bedroom/bath. I'll post more about those later.

Go. Do. Create and enjoy!

Funky Decoration

I've been struggling the last couple of weeks to pick decorations for A's 4th birthday. She decided around Christmas that she would rather have a mermaid party than a princess party. I'm not sure any of you know, but in January it's incredibly hard to buy anything mermaid related. I knew I was going to have to make some things, but didn't realize how much I may have to make. Never fear, I love a craft...or five.

Yesterday's craft gave me an idea for funky little serving dishes for candy or whatnot. Originally, I was going to use clear glass bowls, then I saw these colorful little glass containers. The blue/green combination is going to work perfectly for the mermaid theme!

Supplies obtained at Dollar Tree (again!)

I followed the same directions I used to make the tiered storage trays. If you didn't see that post, click here for instructions. 

I made two and absolutely adore the way they tuned out. I can't wait to get more supplies and see what else I can create!

Go. Do. Create and enjoy!

Super Cute Anything Organizer

I'm always looking for new storage ideas. What can I say? I am my mother's child. I originally got the idea from this pin and had to make one as soon as possible. I gathered all the supplies this afternoon and guess what! I spent just under $10 for everything! I made two of these tiered organizers for under $10 and with less than an hour of work.

Super Cute Anything Organizer

Supplies needed:

Dinner plate(s) - $1 each

Salad plate(s) or bowl - $1 each

Candle stick(s) - $1 each

Glass glue - or any glue that adheres to glass or ceramic -$3.99

Rubbing alcohol - I already had on hand (Free)

Supplies $10

I purchased everyone but the glue at one of our local Dollar Tree's and purchased the glue at Hobby Lobby for $3.99. You won't use a lot of glue for this project, so your $3.99 is going to go a long way. 

Clean your surfaces

 First, I wanted to make sure the surfaces that the glue would adhere to was clean! For this, I used the rubbing alcohol to remove any residue from the stickers when I peeled them off. 

Next, I turned my salad plate and my bowl over and put glue around the edge of the smaller end of the candle sticks. Follow your glue's directions. Mine suggested giving the glue 1-2 minutes to set prior to adhering the two items. I also let my pieces set as shown for 10-15 minutes so that they wouldn't slide around when I turned them over to adhere the bottom to the dinner plate. Also, do this in a well ventilated area. My kitchen was not the best spot. 

Cute candy dish?

Honestly, at this point you could stop and have a really cute candy dish or whatever else your heart desires. I was testing to make sure my bowl wouldn't slide around while I was working with the bottom.

Place your glue around the edge of the wider end of your candle stick and carefully place into the center of your plate. Let dry! My glue said it's cure time is 24 hours. 

Bathroom organizer

The hardest part for me is the wait, so I carefully took this one into the bathroom to take a couple of pictures!

Go. Do. Create and enjoy!

DIY: Cute Anything Organization

Or cupcake stand. Lol. Versital, huh? Info to come.

Hello, Saturday!

I was so incredibly ready for this weekend. I'm not really sure why, but it felt like it took it's sweet time getting here. It was an interesting week, both at home and at work. It's evaluation time at work and we all had the dreaded task of writing our self-eval. Why I hate this task so much, I will never know. I also got a week day off to spend with Mr. Ber. We should know by now not to make plans because they never pan out, ever. We salvaged what was left of our day, after a trip to the emergency room with our oldest, and went shopping. I got the cutest coffee mug at Target, I'm absolutely in love with it. I also fell in love with an entire aisle of kitchen decor. I warned my husband that we may be redecorating soon. I'm getting the bug.

Aren't these colors gorgeous?

I couldn't resist this mug. 

Holy Owl!

I'm a sucker for owls. I really love cute, girly, whimsical owls. Actually, if you'd like to draw me to your website, Pin, blog, etc. just use an owl.

That's exactly what happened with http://www.screamingowl.com. If you're into deep discounts and too cute to pass up items, head on over and check them out!

Happy Sunday!

It's a dreary day here. We slept in and made a late breakfast. Happy Sunday to everyone!

Cheese!

In rare form.

The sweet little lady.

 Cheeeese! Not the tasty kind. I've been snapping photos of the kids tonight. I'm hoping to get a few shots over the weekend for Adele's 4th birthday invitations. I've learned it's really hard to photograph your own kids. At least, the kids of the toddler variety. Our oldest is a ham.

Snack Time

I've had a serious sweet tooth since I quit smoking a few months ago and my waistline is not happy. One of my "goals" this year is to live a healthier lifestyle which means curbing the snacks.

Tonight, I decided to create grab and go snack bags. The pre packaged 100 calorie snacks have always been pretty hit or miss with me, so I just created my own. I picked a couple of my favorite snacks, one salty and one sweet, and measured the portions. These will be great for the kiddos, too!

I'm looking forward to creating more for my family. This is just a small step towards a healthier life, but at least we're taking it.

52 Week Challenge: It's a go!

I took advantage of today's pay day to catch up on weeks 1 and 2. It's only $3, but I'm excited about the start!

I plan to find (or make) a prettier envelope soon!

Have you started? Are you going to do it backwards?

52 Week Challenge

If you're anything like me, you're always looking for a way to save some money. In our household, my husband takes care of the checking/savings account. That's just the way I like it. Well, that is until I want to purchase something. I hate taking anything extra out of our account for myself. That money is family money, not Ber money. It's hardest for me when I want to purchase something for Mr. Ber. I'm pretty sure I've found the solution, though!

As always, I was puttering around Pinterest when I came across the 52 Week Challenge from Saving a Buck! I'm in love with this idea and it fits perfectly into the allowance that Mr. Ber and I have set up for ourselves. We have been lucky enough to have pay checks fall opposite of one another, so every week there's money coming in. Each week we take $60 a piece for whatever we may want to purchase. It's worked well for us, but I save very little of it. I've decided I'm going to give this a try. I think it's going to work well for me and I may even get my husband to try it, too. I'll keep you all posted on my (our) progress!

Are you going to take the challenge?

Crave Photography

I know you guys love giveaways as much as I do! How about one that can help jump start your business?

Head on over here and enter!

http://cravemyphotography.com/blog/business-jump-start-giveaway/

They like me. They really like me!

Ok, so it isn't everyone, but...

Yesterday, a friend of Bran's messaged me and told me she loved my photos and would like me to do her wedding in April. I was incredibly hesitant about saying yes, but in the end I agreed. It's a great opportunity. I'll get the chance to see if portrait/wedding photography is something I'm into or if I want to continue taking photos for the family and doing what I know I love, landscapes.

Now comes the hard part for me, pricing. I read a lot about this yesterday and saw many different opinions. Some said that if you've never done it before, do it for free. Others said to think about the time you're putting into it. A good friend, and more experienced photographer, told me that for every hour I shoot, there will be at least an hour of post production. I'm still not sure what to tell this girl that I will charge. I won't be doing it for free, but I won't charge something that I'm not yet worth.

Either way, I'm really excited (and nervous) about the opportunity!