September 10, 2013 by Stephanie

And the Birds Sing

It’s been awhile since Tyrone has graced the blog…

Such a great song! I am still debating on making it to one of his shows on his fall tour. Money and travel really do throw rocks in planning for funtivities. If you have him in your area, you really should try to go!

Anywho…

Recently, Tom and I had a painting date night. There is a really sweet little shop that hosts painting lessons a few times each week. The women who run the place, are adorable and definitely made the night super fun.

As with most social painting places, they provided the paint equipment and the canvas to take home. They do one design so you have to pick a night that you like what’s on the menu. You are able to change the colors and little details, but the underlying subject is the same.

Tom signed his with the Rakkasan symbol in the corner, and he ended up taking it to work for the office they all congregate in. He has even recruited several other guys to go with us the next time. Awesome right?

It was a fun night, and we have planned to do it every couple months for fun.

The rest of my post will be a plea to help someone I know further his education.

Dan is a student I worked with at Iowa State. He has entered the Dr. Pepper Tuition Giveaway for his grad school endeavors. He is a super talented person, and I am glad I had the pleasure of working with him. He was intentional with his conversations and made sure everyone he spent time with knew that he was present and they were his main priority. I was always amazed at his tenderness and capability of serving others. He is going to be great at his profession of choice!

This was a conference trip we went on together for housing. (I am the one in the yellow cardigan in the right hand corner.) Shout out to the Cyclones this week against Iowa. Let’s go Iowa State!

In order to reach his goals without the financial headache, he needs help in this contest! If you are ever so kind, it just takes a second to vote! Just click on the link and hit the thumbs up. Once it is circled in green, you have voted!

http://www.drpeppertuition.com/profile/1483130943

Again, he is a great human being who needs a little help! Thanks a million friends!

September 7, 2013 by Stephanie

I’m a Little Teacup

One of my favorite things is perusing thrift stores. My mom used to take my brother and I all the time as a kid, and it was always fun to see what treasures we could find. And usually I could find an elephant somewhere to add to my massive figurine collection.

I still love going even if I have no plan in mind of purchasing anything.

And lucky for me, there are scads of awesome thrift stores here in Clarksville. It makes sense though if you think about it with it being a college and military town, there are always people moving around and downsizing before loading up those moving trucks. This means that there are great finds everywhere.

And come to find out there is a thrift store on base. Tom and I had been driving past it for months, but we just realized that this random big white building next to the PX is a thrift store. So we went a couple weeks ago on our tour de thrift store Saturday.

I actually did have a project in mind. My partner, Lesle, in the Carabox exchange, loves tea, so I thought it would be cute to make something out of tea cups. I got this idea from my sister-in-law who made these last year. Thanks Em!

And apparently tea sets/china does not make the cut for moving lists. There were hundreds of tea cups at every store we went to. I got this cup and saucer for a couple dollars.

It’s too bad I didn’t know about this last year since I know several people who were searching all over for tea cups for party decorations.

This project is so simple, just super glue and some time.

Just glue the teacup to the saucer. Let it sit for the recommended time.

Then you have a sweet little jewerly holder/coin holder/candle holder/etc. Super easy, yet effective.

It’s too bad that I am not fond of tea, because I think tea sets are adorably sweet. And tea parties are super fun, and make you feel like you are a lot more sophisticated than you actually are. (Thanks Katy for hosting a beautiful one back in Iowa! You really are that sophisticated though!)

I also want to say thanks to the ladies who nominated me for the Liebster Blog Award over the past few weeks!

Elizabeth, Amanda, and Lauren, I really appreciate the shout out, and I love all of your blogs dearly! I am so glad to share this with you all!

I hope you all have a great weekend. I have a great surprise starting tomorrow so I hope you come back and visit!

For now I must finish watching my Clemson Tigers! CLEM in Cadence Count!

This will be my kids…

September 4, 2013 by Stephanie

My Container Store

With the Cara Box exchange, I really wanted to make everything for Lesle.

Here was my train of thought.

She had said that she loved labeling and organization throughout her blog, so I thought I would create containers that had really cute labels on it.

See doesn’t that look cute?

That is not how they turned out. Here was the sequence of events.

I had tried mod podgeing scrapbook paper labels I made, but my sample one looked atrocious. The mod podge I used did not dry clear as I had thought. It was cloudy and streaky, and just plain ugly. The pictures don’t show the injustice of the mod podge, so it is not even post worthy. But the jar still works, so we are still using it…in the closet.

So nix the label idea.

I decided that I was going to paint chevron stripes on the remaining containers I had because that was something else Lesle had mentioned.

I bought the new chevron painter’s tape they have at Lowe’s. Genius! Fairly pricey, but so worth the headache I had endured before trying to do chevron.

So I painted my merry little way all over the jars.

Then I tried peeling off the tape.

Curse of the ugly jars. The tape just took off the paint with it. I will admit, I should have used different paint, but I was still upset. It basically turned to rubber cement on the jars and was easy to rub off.

So try three…

I started scrambling through my craft closet to see what I could come up with.

I found some decorative buttons and frilly ribbon and pulled out the go-to hot glue gun.

And this was the final and perfect product!

I think they turned out pretty swell considering how many try overs I had. And bonus, I used these to hold all the other goodies I sent her: tea, crocheted scarf and dog treats for her dog.

So it maybe wasn’t the labeled goodness I had envisioned, but hopefully she can still use my Pinterest fail to be organized in the house!

August 19, 2013 by Stephanie

Mirror, Mirror, on the Wall

I am still feeling a little woozy and under the weather, so it will be pretty simple tonight. I have some meatier things on the docket for later this week, and I have lots of upcoming crafts to share!

I have had this mirror since my freshmen year of college, so ten years ago. It has made it through over 15 moves across the years, and it had the scars to prove it. There were random paint and scratches all over it.

So needless to say, it needed some updating or we would need to part ways. I chose the former.

I got felt from Hobby Lobby and buttons that I already had. You need more felt than you realize. I ended up having to go back for more. I think I ended up with around 30 sheets total.

You need two sizes of circles. The smaller circles you do not need as many. It is a 6:1 ratio (6 large circles for every 1 small circle).

Luckily, my hubster was really helpful and cut most of the circles! He is a super good craft husband.

First thing for the “petals,” fold a large circle in half.

Then you fold it into an ‘S’ shape.

Then you glue 6 of these triangles onto a little circle. It will look like a pie chart. This is the view from the back.

Then you just fluff the petals up. You can leave it like this.

Or you can jazz it up by hot gluing a button or jewel of some kind to the middle.

This took a long time to make all of these. We spent a few nights working on this project. I also messed up a tray table with the felt and hot glue, so be careful what surface you make them on.

Once you make all the flowers, you just glue them to the mirror. You will need more than you think because they squish together. I thought I was done several times, only to find that we needed to cut more circles. Hubster to the rescue!

We may regret choosing this color, because I am not sure how the felt will hold up to dirt, dog hair, and dust. But for now it is super pretty! And hey, we are into the second decade of this bad boy, so I think we can afford another mirror.

August 12, 2013 by Stephanie

PCSing..whoseywhatsits

Today, I am linking up with Ashley from Eights on the Move for Military Monday and PCS Adventures.

I thought Student Affairs was bad with acronyms. That field has got nothing on the military.

PCS or Permanent Change of Station is basically the military’s way of saying moving for your job.

I am finally feeling like we have settled in from our PCS in May.

In the military, you can have the government pack and move you if you so choose. Tom and I decided to do a DITY (Do-IT-Yourself) move, which is where we move ourselves and then get paid by the Army.

We ended up saving/gaining some mula doing it this way. This way, I also had control over it and knew where everything was. Plus with the timing of things from my exit from Iowa State, we were able to get moving help from my end as well with loading the truck.

Double score.

Many people take this opportunity to travel and see the sites along the way to their new abode. Unlike others, we did not do anything extravagant on the way here. Our road trip was simple-get there as fast as we can. I get really stressed out on road trips-mostly because I get restless and cranky. We just wanted to get out of that Uhaul and into our new space. Plus sight-seeing can be somewhat difficult with a pooch. So we just drove through Iowa, Missouri, Illinois, and Kentucky stopping as little as we could.

I was so lucky to have Tom help with the moving process. I am a little terrified of driving. (Seriously, I have a panic attack about driving on a weekly basis.) So driving this bad boy is a nightmare for me. I couldn’t imagine doing it without him, which is what many military families have to plan for. We have been thinking about what the next move will look like and the timing of his exit out of the Army and the next deployment. There are a lot of things to consider, but we aren’t going to worry about that just yet. But I am leaning more towards using PODS, especially since the Army will not pay for you to move “out.”

I am not sure which option is better. They both have pros and cons to it. I think you have to figure out what is best for you and your situation. It may look completely different if there are kids in the mix and depending on where you are going.

Maybe we would have taken more time if the trip would have needed to take several days across country anyway. Also if we were PCSing to say Italy or Hawaii, I think sight-seeing would be in order…all the time.

Regardless, I am glad the move is done and our PCS story has been written.

But the thing is, with the Army, someone is always PSCing. Tom’s unit seems to be doing all kinds of turnover. I feel like every day he comes home talking about another new person. It is really difficult to keep track. I need him to make the Army version of a family tree to keep it straight, along with their titles.

With this you have to say goodbye to people that you have gotten close to and learned a great deal from. You do this in any move really, but the frequency is probably not as high as it is in the military. It is just part of the deal with the Army. You get to meet a lot of people along the way, but they may not always stay in your neighborhood.

Tom just recently said goodbye to his platoon sergeant. Tom was the driver of his vehicle in Afghanistan, so he got to know the Sgt. pretty well. Plus, I think Tom was attached to him more because this Sgt. was his first out of basic and for his first deployment. But that is me just speculating the sentimental. His wife was also the FRG leader who answered all my questions while Tom was deployed and I was in Iowa.

To show their appreciation, the company pooled together to get him a gift. Tom of course went into creation overdrive to make it the best thing ever. And it is one of the coolest things I have seen, so of course I have to share it!

They bought him a gun and had it engraved with special emblems for the brigade and company. It looked pretty snazzy! Then Tom made a box that looks like the boxes that everything came shipped in while they were in Afghanistan.

The fun thing about this, was that Tom took a lot of time and energy to make it look like he didn’t care about the details. He was very particular about making it look like it had been on deployment.

He then bought foam padding and also used the padding from the box the gun came in to cushion the gun while moving it.

Even though I didn’t get to see this, it was fun hearing how the company gave the gift and the reactions from everyone. This family will be missed when they move to California!