mini chalkboards

so i'm on a mission to clean out my craft boxes! i looove cleaning out :)
I picked up these strange metal sign thingys at the dollar tree a while ago and finally pulled them out to craft.

i added a couple coats of chalkboard paint - my favorite

and some strips of scrapbook paper


grabbed some magnets and a little chalk

and the sweetest picture of the cutest little niece ever!
easy peasy
and one less thing in my craft box!

fall creek falls adventure

we decided to take advantage of all this gorgeous february weather this weekend and head a couple hours away to do a little camping. by the time we collected all the gear we needed in the fall, it was too cold to go, so this was our first time to head out on our own.

so i have this thing about getting a little claustrophobic when i can't move my legs or toes (as in i might have kicked a cowboy boot across a store because i couldn't move my toes and i couldn't get the boot off which lead to me not being able to breath) SO when james got me this awesome mummy bag i told him there was no way i was zipping it up. ever.
yea well, when the temp hit the high 30's saturday morning, it didn't take long for me to zip that thing up and cinch it down around my face as far as it would go. i somehow survived. thank you james for springing for the good sleeping bag.

lesson 1 - charge the camera. good thing for iphones. lesson 2 - check out the campsite before you pay for it. we definitely got one right between the rv's. they were probably laughing at us while sitting in front of there heaters.

we packed up our stuff saturday morning and headed to a local restaurant for the breakfast buffet. we were totally roughing it here. then we were off to do some sight seeing

this waterfall is beautiful! apparently some of the scenes from the jungle book were filmed here and you can hike all the way down to it. it was a bit too cold for us to try, but definitely a fun spring trip.

we had a blast driving around the park

looking at the waterfalls and spotting deer (who weren't afraid of us at all) and turkeys

even the drive back to chattanooga is beautiful. we pulled over on the side of the road to snap this picture of the valley

and look what we found! james might not have carved it, but he said he means it :)

homemade biscuits

so after spending our whole sunday afternoon watching an old western series on netflix, james decided to bake some good ol' homemade biscuits just like in the show. now i'm pretty much a horrible cook, so i'm way too scared to try things that require kneading, "cutting butter in" and such. james is much more brave.

and can even add some style to it

don't you all do this to your homemade biscuits?

they turned out amazing, of course. i love breakfast for dinner so james added some bacon and eggs - other things i can't cook well.

oh yea. he even did the dishes afterwards.

yea, he's one of the good ones. how lucky am i?

framed memories

i was so excited when my dad found my grandmother's thimbles and i knew exactly what i wanted to do with them. of course it took me 3 months to actually get around to doing it. my other grandmother has had some family thimbles framed in her house for as long as i can remember, so that's what i wanted to do with these.

i picked up a couple little shadow boxes at ikea but they were out of white, of course, so i pulled out the spray paint


after a couple (billion) coats paint, they were all bright and shiny


i cut out a couple pieces of scrapbook paper for the back


and hot glue the thimbles right on


and that's it!


it makes me think of all my grandmother's needlepoints every time i see it! good memories

craft night

friday night + hubbys gone = craft night!

fabric scraps, ribbons, canvases, modge podge, a big mess and a "late" night

= fun colorful projects!

4 years...

the looong awaited, dreamed of night finally came when i was least expecting it

pretty sure there's no valentine's day activities that will ever pass up that one

happy valentine's day!

valentines ideas

so you know how there are about a million super cute valentines day ideas out there and yet i still resort to walmart clearance cards every year? well i was totally pumped when one of the girls in my class actually made some of the super cute ideas!


ipods from conversation heart boxes and mini reese's



and lotion for me!



totally rockin' the ipods
huge hit

just in case...

and you though christmas was over...

i love christmas cards. a lot.
but since it is february, i thought it might be time to take them down

my mom always kept the cards from each year and i can remember looking back through albums and thinking it was so funny to see all my friends when they were little.

so here's what i do with mine.
1. cut out a piece of cardboard

2. modge podge some scrapbook paper and ribbon onto it

3. hole punch the top corners of all the cards


4. string them on a ring-thingy

5. and wa-la

all ready to reminisce next year

opryland

once we were in mcdonalds and the girl leans over the counter towards james and said "would you like a free.." before she even finished james said "YES." i mean really, she could have been offering something really weird or odd, although she was holding one of those huge coffee drinks with whip cream on top...

anyway, my dad called last weekend and said he had an extra room at the opryland hotel because one of the people he works with couldn't make it to the convention last minute and would we like to...

um, YES. we're there.

we stopped by our favorite coffee house for some lunch on the most beautiful day we've seen in a while and then hit the road.

james didn't know what the opryland was, so he wasn't quite sure why i was so excited.
until we got there.
it is beautiful.


eating pizza to the sound of waterfalls in the background? yes, thank you


it's so huge! and this is only one of the several atriums.







we even got to run into the newmans on saturday night!

after all the fun, we had to leave so my dad could get back to work. it's all work and no play for him, you know :)