Thursday, April 28, 2011

TORNADOES!!!!

Oh My Goodness!!!!  It is about to storm here in Savannah.  Tonight has been a bad weather day for all of us in the South.  There have been a bunch of tornadoes popping up all the way from Mississippi to Georgia and it is supposed to go all the way up the East Coast.  I am not a newbie when it comes to bad storms.  My mom, grandmother, sister, and I huddled in my grandma's house when I was a kid during Hurricane Andrew (one of the worst hurricanes in decades to hit the East Coast until Katrina).  I was seriously traumatized from that incident.  I have also been through other hurricanes, as well as tornadoes.  I had to seriously hit the ditch one time when I was on the road to a music festival.  We also have a house right outside of Fort Benning, GA and we would always get bad storms there.  My husband was such a great guy.  If he was working, he would call me and warn me about an approaching storm (cause I don't watch the news).  A few times he has had to calm me down when some of the storms got really bad.  Well he is not here tonight :(  He is training right now.  So it is only me, Kaya (my daughter), and our three animals.  I guess we will be huddling in my shower tonight.....and I will post pictures of my animals to show you why I am not looking forward to sharing that small space with them.  My dog, George, is a Presa Canario and about 140 pounds.  My cats are HUGE too.  And my one cat, Luna, hates anything besides humans.   My other cat, Marley, and George are best friends though and like to sleep together.  It is actually really adorable. Ugh, alright, I am going to get all my "storm supplies" together.  Hopefully I have batteries for my flash light in case we lose power....I know I have like 1,000 matches so if worse comes to worse and we lose power, I can burn some candles! 

George

George

Marley 

Luna in the bucket we were bathing our daughter in.  He likes to claim anything that is hers as his stuff! 

George "protecting" Kaya during the first week she was home.  She had jaundice really bad so she had to be on a light machine.  

Thursday, April 21, 2011

Organizing My Life!

So lately I have been reading one particular blog lately, IHeart Organizing


IHeart Organizing

I have been inspired to tackle the Family Binder suggestion she blogged about at the beginning of this year.  I went out today to Walmart and stocked up on a ton of folders, paper protectors, and these cool zippered folders.  Unfortunately the zippered folders do not have holes punched into them for me to put in those binders, but that is where ole' trusty 3-hole puncher comes in!  I found some simple scrapbooking paper in my tons of paper that I could put on the front and on the side of the binder.





Like I have mentioned I have also been setting up my craft room in the formal dining room that we never used.  I had nowhere to put all my new folders, as well as my fabric swatches, so I brought my old bookcase out of my husband's office, which was being used as a landing strip for everything from books to mail to my old laptop.  I cleared off everything and surprisingly my dear husband took inspiration from me cleaning and offered to bring the bookcase out to my crafting room....either that or he wanted me out of his office so he could play WoW without me huffing and puffing.  A little insight into my "can't throw anything away" syndrome....I have had that bookcase since I was a teenager.  I have lugged it from apartment to apartment and from home to home.  It still looks decent after all these years.  Unfortunately, now I have all unmatching furniture in my crafting room.  They range from a cherry wood to an oak color to a light tan color.  It is my goal to eventually paint everything on one of these beautiful Savannah spring days....before it gets over 100 degrees in the summer.  So now I have a place to store my family binder, my taxes for both my businesses, and previous taxes and receipts from my husband's and my previous taxes, as well as all my scrapbook papers, which I am using a 2" binder and my sheet protectors to contain! 


I also bought a large pizza pan today.  When I got home from the store, my husband helped me unpack all our groceries and saw this.  He got onto me for buying it since we just put our pizza straight on the rack.  I told him it isn't for pizza of course!  I have been inspired from another blog, Liz Marie





Photobucket


In one of her post, she blogs about organizing your make up at Makeup Storage {Part 2} .  I just need to find the right fabric for my bathroom.  I will hopefully find some fabric that will match my shower curtains.





Eventually I am going to get a vanity so I can do my makeup in my big master bedroom instead of in our tiny bathroom.  That is the one thing I miss....a big bathroom with a tub.  I have a tub in my daughter/guest bathroom, but I want one in MINE!  Right now we just have a stand up shower, which is pretty big, so I guess that is a plus.  I also was inspired by her other post about organizing my makeup brushes, Makeup Storage {Part 1}.  I bought two small vases and some decorative sand (the vases were under $2 and the sand was about $3).  I have yet to make the cutouts "Face" and "Eyes" to paste on the vases, but I will eventually get to that.  Hey at least I got a place to store my brushes instead of in my travel bag where I have to dig for them!






I have a lot more to do on my "To Do List", but I will eventually get to all of it.

Tuesday, April 19, 2011

So I have finally I have set up an Etsy Account to sell my little creations!  I have been procrastinating because personally I kind of fall in love with all the stuff I create.  I have a beautiful daughter and I started making accessories for her, but some of my friends encouraged me to sell them.  That was a great recommendation since I work at home.  I am a medical transcriptionist, but I can always bring in more money into the home.  Anyways, if anyone wants to check out the cute little hair accessories and tutus I make, check out Irie Children

Saturday, April 16, 2011

Storage Jars

So I have an obsession with collecting jars and vases.  I don't know why I do it, I just do.  My cabinets are full of them.  My husband at one point convinced me to stop saving the glass POM juice and now I am sad they don't sell the juice in glasses any more.  I should have never listen to him!  Anyways, so I have decided to put some of these jars to use since I am setting up my crafting room.  I need places to store all my little decorations I do for my tutus that I make.  This will be my first, but definitely not last, tutorial.  

WHAT YOU WILL NEED
  • Jars, with lids
  • Scrapbook paper
  • Scissors 
  • Mod Podge glue

WHAT TO DO



  1. Take the lid of the jar and lay it on the white side of the scrapbook paper you have decided to use as your decor.  (The picture shows the decorated side, but remember to glue the white side of the paper to the surface of the lid). Cut an additional inch around the lid so that you can fold the paper on the sides of the lid.  
  2. Once you have cut out your paper, take a paintbrush or sponge and brush mod podge glue on the top of the jar lid.  Lay your piece of paper down onto the glue.  Do not put glue on sides yet.

  3. Once the glue on the top is dry.  Cut the excess paper into strips all the way around the lid.  This will allow you to fold the paper down and glue the sides of the lid without getting bumps or weird folds.  
  4. You can now put glue on either the excess paper or directly on the side of the lids.  I prefer to glue the paper that way when you fold the paper down the sides and into the lid, you won't have to brush more glue on the inside of the lid.  Allow glue to dry.  
  5. Once dry, I like to brush a thin layer of mod podge glue on the paper to seal it.  You can also brush a clear acrylic sealer after you apply the mod podge sealing coat.  
  6. Depending on the size of the jar, measure another piece of scrapbook paper and cut it in a strip.  (Mine measured about 2 1/2 inches).  Write with a Sharpie marker the item being stored in the jar onto the strip of paper.  Mine says "Rhinestones".  Turn paper over and brush on mod podge glue onto the white side of the paper.  Attach paper to the middle of the jar and hold for a few seconds to make sure it sticks.  You now have a place to store all those little items that get lost at the bottom of your craft drawers.  And you have saved a jar from cluttering up our landfills! 


Here Is My Jar



Friday, April 15, 2011

Crafting Room

So even though I work at home, I have no home office....or a place for my sanity :)  I would share my husband's office, but I am not too keen on hearing him yell at the guys he plays with on his videogames online.  Plus when I like to do crafts, I like to spread out...something that would be impossible to do with us sharing the small room he has as an office.  For months, I have been wishing I had a room to call my own.  Then I was on a crafter's blog and read where she turned her formal dining room that they never use into her craft room.  PERFECT, I HAVE ONE OF THOSE!!!  Seriously, we NEVER use it even when company comes.  We have a huge living room, which we sit around the coffee table for dinner.  So yesterday, I moved our bar-height dining room table into the kitchen.  Unfortunately, it doesn't match the kitchen, but we rent the house and I love dark wood furniture so there is no way I am painting my beautiful espresso-colored table.  I guess I will just have to live with the unmatching colors until we move.  

What is cool about all the furniture in my now crafting room is that it is all recycled furniture (for now...I still want to buy some more stuff or go dumpster diving when the SCAD students leave for summer break).   Our ex-roommate was going to trash this dresser she had when she moved in with us.  I DON'T THINK SO!!!  I scooped that right up and have been using it as a "china cabinet".  I have moved all the dishes back into the kitchen and the dresser is now my storage for all my crafting supplies.   As my crafting table, I have a table that was given to me from the ex-roommate's ex-boyfriend.  The restaurant they were working at was just going to throw it away, so he rescued it and then when he knew we needed a "kitchen island", he gave it to us.  We then inherited when my roommate moved out.   We had been using it as a table we threw everything on when we came into the house and to put the cat bowl on so our dog George didn't eat their food.  It is a work in progress still, but I will post pictures soon.  

For now, here are some pictures of my flowers overfilling their storage case 



Welcome to my blog!

So in honor of my first blog, I thought I would tell you a little about myself.  My name is Sarah.  I am what you would consider a hippie....dreadlocks and all!   I am probably what you would consider an old soul and should have grown up in the 60s.  Ironically, I married a wonderful guy who is the man of my dreams (although I didn't know that when I first met him).  You might ask why I say that.  That is because he is in the military, an Army Ranger to be exact.  So we are obviously COMPLETE opposites.  We met through friends and he kind of cyber stalked me, finding me on myspace.  We started a friendship online and eventually he asked me to come with him to a party over Thanksgiving.  We have been together ever since.  After about 4 1/2 years of dating, we finally got married, January 23, 2010.  

Of course we totally had a non-expensive, non-stressful wedding.  We got married 3 1/2 weeks after he asked me to marry him.  I ended up getting my dress while David's Bridal was having their $99 dress sale.  We ended up getting married in front of a river FOR FREE.  When I had called wedding venues, they were outrageously expensive.  So I was like forget that, lets do it at a park.  I had recycled material with my mom's tulle to wrap around the staircase leading down to the river and as an aisle since there was Georgia red clay leading to these huge flat rocks.  Needless to say, I loved the way we got married.   Fast forward four months later....We find out that I am pregnant with our daughter, Kaya.  I wanted to have her completely natural and with a waterbirth.   Well, she ended up giving me high blood pressure a week and a half before she was due (which was supposed to be on Valentine's Day)....so no water birth for me.  I did get my wish to have her completely natural though.  I refused epidurals and I had what I would call a pretty easy labor/birth.  My daughter, Kaya, was born on February 04, 2011.  

Now I have always been thrifty.  I would make things all the time.  But ever since I had Kaya, my supermom talent has come out of me.  I wanted to make a lot of my daughter's clothes.  I started making flower headbands and then beautiful little tutus.  So I started thinking this is so much fun and I feel like my stuff is pretty good that other mommies might be interested in having some of these outfits for their little girls too.  That is when Irie Children's Boutique was dreamed up.  I now (in between naps) make cute little things for girls of all ages (and yes, sometimes adults like wearing tutus and cute little headbands too!).  I hope that you guys enjoy my blogging about my life and the crafts that will be coming to light through here.