The Conference is Here!

Well first off, Go Pack Go! I wasn't watching the game, but it was a blast listening to those watching it in the bar and sneaking glances of the front desk staff watching the game huddled around one of their monitors. I think it may have been better than watching it myself!

Secondly, everything is set for the conference and I am all moved into my room on the Governor's Club level. Here is a view from my room.

I love Madison. It really is such a beautiful place. But being downtown makes me miss a special someone.

I'll be home on Wednesday and the snuggle session can begin!!!

I'll be trying to post the next few days while I'm onsite. If not, I'll be posting later in the week.

Hutch Updates

I am perpetually changing my decor. I'll be posting new pictures of the guest bedrooms and my new office chair soon. I'm so excited for these small changes. I already freshened up our bathroom and I'm in progress of making the guest bedrooms fresh and updated for the new year. I love freshening up using items from around the house. Do you have any good ideas or new uses for things?

My MIL and FIL got us a new globe for our 4th wedding anniversary and I adjusted our globes on the hutch to fit the new additions.

What do you think?

This, however, is my new dining table centerpiece.

It would be fine except B now thinks it is perfectly acceptable to climb on the table to fetch an item of his choosing. NOT OK! They will be moving in the near future... to where, I haven't a clue!

Snowbabies!

For MLK day, I had the day off. We also happened to get 5 inches of snow so I stayed in all day and crafted to my heart's content! The dogs loved having me home with nothing pressing to do. It was a glorious, relaxing, productive day.

Anyway, I can't quite show you all my crafting goodies, so I'll plan on showing you those next week or so. For now, take a look at my Snowbabies from Monday. We had such a good time!

Here is my whole lot of Snowbabies....

And here is my frozen Snowbaby that never wants to come in.

Phin was so snow-covered, it looked like a white blanket.

And my Ollie, soaking wet, but still looking like a perfect little angel.

We had such a fun day on our snow day...enjoy your winter snow days!

Martha Freebie

I love Martha. I just can't seem to help myself.

I especially love the freebies that Martha gives out! I just can't seem to stop my fingers from clicking "download" even if I don't need the item.

I've used a lot of her free templates lately for my sister's party favors... more on that later!

For a bridal shower last year, I made the brides-to-be some baking equivalents and cooking sheets. I downloaded, printed, cut, laminated, re-cut, packaged and gifted. Super easy. I used them as embellishments for their gifts.

Anyway, the mothers of the brides wanted some so for our holiday get-together, I made some for them!

Find Martha's link here and make your own!

Exhausted!

I've been in the Emergency Room since 8am and I am exhausted. Thankfully I wasn't the one injured. I did manage to have my first ambulance ride though. Long story...

Anyway, I am just exhausted. From the ER visit to the conference in two weeks to just all of life ...etc...etc.

All I want is a nap and one of these...

...and maybe a hug from my mom.

Furniture?

It's the new year and I have the redecorating bug. I've created a list (by room) of all the changes we need to do in 2011! There are lots!

We went to look at furniture for the downstairs lounge this weekend because it really could use some new furniture. Here's my favorite option so far...

What do you think? The jury is still out for us... we keep going back and forth. We'll see.

Busy, busy, busy!

You know that you've had a busy weekend when you wake up Monday morning and wish you had just one more Sunday to work on getting things done. That is 100% what I thought of the second I opened my eyes this morning.

I will say that it was a productive weekend.... a VERY productive weekend... that involved sending over 500 lbs of stuff to Goodwill, putting some items on CraigsList, scanning 3000+ photos so I can dump the actual photos, hanging up a life-size wall map, hanging up 4 dishes and 1 picture, reorganizing 3 closets, fixing baseboard, making goodies for my sister's upcoming birthday party that I'm hosting, wrapping gifts for our Brown family outing next weekend, vacuuming under all of the furniture in my bedroom in addition to the weekly cleaning, laundry, grocery shopping, church outing, etc. J and I even made time to watch a 4.5 hr mini-series off NetFlix, too. It was a fun weekend in my opinion!


Note: If you ever want to feel like Tom Hanks in The Terminal, take my advice and just bring 3,000+ photos to Sam's Club to scan. You'll be there for so long it'll feel like you've moved in... we watched TV, got sodas and refills, went to the bathroom, walked about and just made ourselves comfortable. We were there for over 4 hours, yes, you read that correctly... 4 HOURS! And the sad part is that I still have at least that same amount to still scan!

Don't you love the map? My MIL scored this for $10! LOVE IT!

In order to do this, though, I did declare this a no-cook weekend which meant we ate something that didn't require cooking or we ate out. By Sunday afternoon it was humorous, but honestly, not cooking allowed me the time to get all these other things done! I had Q for the first time in almost 3 years... and it wasn't as good as I remembered. Oh well.

Tonight is Life Group and I'm so ready to meet our new group members. I hope you have a productive week!

What is your resolution?

Check out this resolution generator and find out what your resolution should be for this year!

Mine was...

and I hit "gimme more," and I got...

Both are quite fitting for 2011. Check it out!

Happy 4th Anniversary to Us!

Today we celebrate our 4th year of marriage. It has all happened in a blink of an eye and I can't wait to see what the next year brings. Thanks for being my best friend, partner-in-everything, mr. fix-it, craft genius and biggest fan. I love you.

Here's to you, my love!

143.

5 Minute Apron -- DIY Idea

We draw names with J's extended family. I drew Angela and she asked for some baking goodies. I found a beautiful cookbook called Modern Baker but I also wanted something to go with it. I found some unique and bright recipe cards but it still lacked something. So I decided to whip up a quick apron to go with her baking goodies.

You'll need one dishtowel and a coordinating roll of ribbon. Add in a sewing machine and you're in business.

Here we go...

Sew the ribbon on towards the bottom as decoration.

Use the remaining ribbon to sew the top and tie for the apron.

Affix a cute "Made by" label on the back and viola!

 
I like using dishtowels because they already have the finished seam and they are super absorbent for drying hands and spills.

New Year, Free Calendar

Happy New Year! Here's to a wonderful 2011.

To commemorate such an occasion, have a free calendar....

Go on over to Atypical Type A and grab your own! You won't be sorry!