puppet warp

I may be a little behind the times with this one - but I just learned this today and thought it was super cool!

In CS5, Photoshop has a new feature called puppet warp that allows you to put multiple anchor points on a picture and drag and move it around.   It's a lot cooler than the regular warp filters that you can play around with.  I watched a great tutorial from Lynda.com found here, and couldn't wait to try it out!

This was a basic ribbon embellishment I had from one of my digital scrapbooking kits that I used the pupped warp feature on.  I'm excited about this new trick because I have a lot of embellishments, and will now be able to play around with them and use them many different ways.

Oh, and another thing I learned; Ctrl+Alt+Z on a PC allows you to step back in your history.  It is above and beyond what the regular Ctrl+Z (undo) command can do. Ctrl+Z will only undo your last action, but with Ctrl+Alt+Z you can take as many steps backward in the history that you need to - all without using your mouse. And Shift+Ctrl+Z will take you forward if you step back too far.  Cool stuff!  Hope you Photoshop users find this helpful and interesting. 

Brilliant Boy!

Not quite two years old and he can name about 23 out of the 26 letters.  yeah, we're impressed! :)

fun with wood: memory tiles

I saw a cute idea on Pinterest to make a memory tile game with wood and scrap paper and wanted to give it a try.

I bought two 1/4" x 1 1/2" x 24" boards from Home Depot for around 50 cents each, and then cut them into 2" pieces.

I sanded them down and glued scrapbook paper to each of them.

 After they were all glued, I sanded around the papers' edges to give them a worn look. 

Then I applied Mod Podge all over the front of the paper to give it a nice finish and to ensure it wouldn't peel up.

 I think they're pretty cute.  You could, of course, paint them a fun color, but I like the nature wood look (especially with the sanded and worn paper around the edges).

Super easy and only costs a buck if you already have scrap paper, a glue stick, and mod podge! :)

Side Note: Although Noah is too little to actually play the memory game, he still likes turning them all right-side-up and finding their matches that way.  Still a great game for little ones :)

diy skinny jeans

So now that I'm out-growing all my regular sized jeans, I've been on the hunt for cheap maternity clothes.  I have quite a few tops and skirts I can wear from my last pregnancy, but I need more long pants as most of my previous preggo bottoms were shorts for summertime.

I came across some Motherhood maternity jeans at the Salvation Army that were only $3 each. They had really comfy panels (not too high, not too low), but I wasn't feeling the flared legs they each had.

So, I thought I would try something new, (I say "new" because I am totally a novice sewer) and make them into skinny jean.  I figured if I destroyed them in the process, I would only be out $6 - but it would give me a chance to practice my sewing skills :)

So here's what I did...

1) Seem ripped the inside seems of each pant leg

2) Turned the pants inside out and laid them on the floor

3) Grabbed some skinny jeans I had, lined up the outside and crotch seems, and marked how skinny I wanted the leg with some chalk. (I kept in mind that these were going to be pregnancy skinny jeans, so I didn't make them as skinny as my regular skinny jeans.)

It's actually better if you put the "butt" side up to line-up the seems and mark with chalk.  I ended up doing it that way, but didn't take a picture.  It's really important to consider the material you need in the bum.  Don't take too much out of the bum area or you won't have any room for your tush. :)

4) After my pants were marked, I pinned them and began sewing up the chalk marks.

 5) Then I took pinking sheers and cut off the extra material.

6) The last step was to fold the new seem over so it lays flat against the pant leg and sew one last seem.  (If that doesn't make sense, look in some of your jeans.  The seem is sewn flat so that it doesn't poke out and rub against your leg.

And that's it! 
Now I have maternity skinny jeans to wear boots with this fall and winter before the babe comes. Not bad for $6, huh?! :)

google phone:home phone

So, Dave and I don't have a home phone; we just use our cell phones and have been doing this for years.  But when we moved to our new place, reception has been terrible!

It might have something to do with the beautiful forest we have in our backyard...

  ...so I try not to complain too much, but it IS frustrating when we can't receive or dial out calls.

But Google, again, has pulled through and given us something amazing!

You know how you can use Google Talk to call people from their chat program (it's the same as their video chat program)?  Well, you can request a phone number and people can call your computer.  We went even farther, and had it set up with my cell phone number.  Which means, when you call my cell phone, my home computer and cell phone will both ring.  

I love this feature because I only receive about 2 out of every 5 calls to my cell phone when I'm home because of the black hole we live in.  For instance, Dave called me today, I was sitting at the computer (my cell phone was in my purse), and I answered his call while at the computer.  MY CELL PHONE NEVER RANG. STUPID NO-SERVICE AREA!  I'm so glad to have this feature since I'm home almost all day, and end up missing tons of calls!  

So all I have to do is stay logged into my email (which I do when I'm home all day anyway) and the computer can even go into sleep mode, and I can receive calls.  I just click on "answer call" and use my web cam's microphone and computer speakers.  The best part is this is completely FREE!  I'm guessing this works best with desktop computer because like I said, I leave mine on all day because it's in our living room and I'm on it sporadically all day.

There is something else we learned today.  If we wanted to purchase a $40 internet/phone box, we could hook our home's land-line into the computer and have an actual phone.  People could call, and it would go thru the computer and ring our house phone (again, you would have to be logged into your email).  Which means you could have a free, monthly, home phone after you purchase the $40 box.  

This has made us seriously think about our $100+ cell phone bill each month, and consider getting one of those pay-as-you go cell phones.  If you think about it, the cell phone companies have to be making bank off of people like us.  We used about 650 minutes last month between the two of us, and we were pretty much forced onto a 1500 min plan because we're a "family".  Crazy to think about how much money you are potentially throwing away.

So do you have any interesting money saving things you've tapped into?  And what do you do for cell and home phone service?

A Noah Post

Whew, I have a ton of posts from this summer that I need to do, but I wanted to do a quick highlight of Noah.

He's been such a sweetheart lately, and extremely funny as always.

Some of my favorite 'Noah' things...

"Pee-Poo" - It's not what you think (although he has been telling us when he needs to go #2).  Pee-Poo means Paper.  He loves to draw on paper and prefers colored pencils (it's like he knows crayons are juvenile...haha)

"Bum-Rush" which is how Noah says, "be rough".  This is a term Dave has taught him.  During his month long Utah vacation this summer, Noah learned to play really rough with his older cousins.  It was super fun for him, but back home he doesn't have older kids to play with and he tries to play rough with some of the kids his age and younger.  Not so great.  (It also doesn't help when Daddy gets home and immediately rough-houses with him.)  So, in attempt to teach him how to "play nice" and when it's ok to "be rough", "Bum Rush" was learned.

What do ya do? Boys will be boys, right?

He's getting really good at his alphabet, numbers, and colors.  He can sing "A,B,C,D,E,F,G" and then some mutterings, and then "O,O,O,O,T" (instead of L,M,N,O,P).  That middle part is my favorite!  I also love at the end of the song he sings, "Now I know my E,F,G's..."  What a hilarious kid!

He loves to get into mischief & danger and he LOVES all food!   

I can't believe he'll still eat the squash and zucchini baby food - he loves it.

He's such an independent little guy.  Sometimes I love it, and sometimes it makes me sad.  He has always been pretty content to play by himself, which is great for when I need to get things done around the house.  But, it breaks my heart a little when I drop him off at nursery or at a friend's house and he doesn't even notice I'm leaving.  Once or twice he's been a little clingy at nursery, but he's never been that wailing kid that won't let go of his mother's leg.  I have no idea what that's like, and I guess sometimes I wish I did...

Bedtime is a sweet treat.  He climbs on my lap, folds his arms throughout the entire prayer, and helps me recite some of his favorite books.  He's now sleeping in a toddler bed (which makes him seem SO big) and he asks me to sing him "Twinkle Twinkle" then "A,B,C's" and then "Jesus Wants Me For A Sunbeam."  Then he says, "Bye Mommy!"

What a fun time in life!

I cannot believe he'll be TWO next month!  I'm excited to get planning his party, and can't wait to see his reaction during it. 

the family proclamation

I've been up to a few projects lately, but I wanted to post this fun and simple one.  

First, let me start by saying - "I love Sew Dang Cute!"  I seriously want to do every tutorial she has posted.  What makes it even cooler is that we (Tam and I) did gymnastics together when we were younger.  You can read about her childhood dream here and pretty much replace her name for mine. :) That was such a fun time in life!  (Although I'm super bummed I wasn't in the picture with Bella Karolyi because I, too, went to that camp :( I wonder where I was...?)

Anyway, she's super crafty and talented and I may or may not stalk her blog like a creeper. :) (BTW you HAVE to check out her guest bedroom redo - I about died!  I love how she made EVERYTHING herself and was sweet enough to do tutorials.)

She also has a tutorial of The Family Proclamation, and I finally made it!  We have The Family Proclamation in our house, but it's in an ugly frame, so I thought it would be fun to spruce it up a little.

This is the picture I chose of us.

It was super simple! I can't believe I didn't do it months ago when I first saw her tutorial.

Since this is as easy as pie to make (it honestly took me 5 minutes to whip up), I would love to make a copy for you (except with your own family photo of course, because giving you a picture of me and my husband would just be weird).  

Sooo, if you become a follower of my blog (the follow button is all the way at the bottom of the site) and email me with a photo you would like as your background, I will make up an 8x10 Proclamation for you and email you a jpeg file so you can take it to Walmart (or where ever you go to print up your pics) and print it. :)

I hope you'll take me up on this offer!  It's a really neat way to make the Proclamation into a unique and even more personal piece for your home.  I sure love mine.  And thanks again to Tam of Sew Dang Cute for all her awesome tutorials and inspiration!