Fun, Cheap and Wearable

Who likes jewelry?

I do and that's why I took up making my own. Not only is it cheap and crafty its fun! I thought I'd share with you guys how to make a cute bracelet for under 10 bucks!!

You can get everything you need at Hobby Lobby or Wal-Mart.

You will need... (I don't use exact names, just what I call them :) )

Wire String 1.99 for about 5 yards

Clampers 4.99

End pieces 1.99 for 26 pieces (makes 13 bracelets)

and

Beads ~ I buy mine at Beyond Beads and they range from.20 to $3 a bead.

The good thing about buying them there is you buy single beads so you are only buying what you need and you won't have a ton left over. You can also purchase beads at Wal-Mart and Hobby Lobby.

Start by closing one end of your bracelet using clampers and end piece.

Add your beads!!

Close the other side

And there you have it, bracelets!!

I know my instructions weren't that in detail but hopefully you get the idea.

Wordless Wednesday!

Zach's First Fish

This weekend Austin and I finally had sometime to take Zach fishing. It was his first time, and all week he had told me "I never been fishing before, you and Austin can take me." My mom took him and got him his own pole and all morning he was calling me telling me he was ready to go fishing!! We took him to Sedgwick County Park and he "never been to this fish place before." First we had to get worms and he did NOT like that. He got really grossed out faces every time he looked at them and told Austin he could put them on the hook. Finally we were ready to go. Austin cast his first line for him but as he was telling me "you have to be patient to catch a fish," he was already reeling it in. He continued to "throw" out his line and reel it in over and over.

Then it was time for a snack because fishing was hard. During his snack Austin threw out his pole and caught a fish first try!! Zach was so excited but wouldn't go near it.

Austin had to help him cast because a few time we almost lost our eyes and other body parts with his crazy throws. When he did try by himself he always forgot to let go of the button and just swung it around.

After some time I caught a baby fish that was only about 3 inches, Zach touched this one and as I was trying to get a picture of him holding it he grabbed it from Austin, ran to the edge of the pond and threw it back. All in all it was a pretty fun time for us all. Zach had a blast and wanted to go back later that day or the next or the next. When we took him back he went out to the deck so he could practice and spent another 30 minutes working on his cast. Hopefully we will be able to take him again soon.

Happy Birthday Emmy

Today is my sister's 16 birthday. Wow, it is crazy to think the youngest of us is almost all grown up. Emily is by far the wildest of us all but I love her to death. Its crazy that she can now drive, legally, everywhere! And in only 2 years she will be graduating high school. I hope the best for her in the year ahead and pray she succeeds in whatever she does.

Today also makes me sad because we celebrate her birthday without my sister Brooke with us. Brooke is away playing soccer for Missouri Western College. Last year she was away but it felt different because it was her first year away and it seemed exciting to her and for me. This year it makes me realize that some day very soon she will be out of college and moved on with her life. I wonder if she will live far or near, if far I won't even get the chance to see her every Holiday that we get out of class.

I want to wish Brooke a Happy Birthday next Monday and I hope she knows she is always in my thoughts and prayers.

Friday Facts

I thought it would be fun to put up some facts I discover throughout the week. Here is what I came up with this week....

~ Remember to give your husband SPECIFIC directions. Example: I was blow drying my hair in our room and I yelled at him to please plug in my straightener. A few minutes later I went to the bathroom to use it and it was plugged in but not turned on. I asked him how I was suppose to use it if it wasn't turned on and he said you told me to plug it in not turn it on.

~ Never boil chicken while reading a book because 45 minutes later you will smell a burning smell and run to the kitchen only to notice the water has evaporated and the chicken is now frying in a hot empty pan, but the book was good.

~ Never seem annoyed when the Y lady ask you to type in your number again because it did not go through, she will see you are annoyed and ask you to type it in multiple times pretending it keeps messing up.

~ Don't purchase a new pup in rainy seasons, you will be standing outside with an umbrella for 20 minutes hourly trying to get him to pee while he is sitting at your feet trying not to get wet.

Hopefully these facts will help you! If you have any great advise please feel free to share!

Back to school

After a crazy year off I have decided to finish my schooling at WSU. With most of my gen eds out of the way I will be concentrating on my accounting degree.

I never thought going back to school would have me really excited, but this time I am. I am ready to tackle out rest of my college life and head off to a true career. Over the years I have debated and tossed around ideas of what I wanted to be when I grew up but now I am grown up and it still seems I haven't completely decided what to do. I have chosen accounting because I love working with numbers and always having a straight answer. I have always loved math and doing anything with it. Although I am not completely sure this is what I will want to do the rest of my life I know having a degree and especially one in accounting will leave a lot of opportunity to go in many different directions.

A lot of things change when you finally grow up and realize you have to be serious about your life and the next steps you are taking. Getting married, buying a house, and talking about children in the future made me understand all this. Its time I got myself together and finished school. I know I need to do this not only for myself but for my husband and our family. After Austin got laid off in march it made this even more clear. Not knowing what I wanted to do was not an option. Not wanting to work and go to school was not an option. Sucking it up and finishing was the clear and only option. I can only pray that I will stay on track this time around and finish what I started. I am lucky to have the opportunity to get higher education and I know with the support of my family and Austin on me this will end up being one of the best experiences of my life.

Books,Books, Books!!

One of my favorite things to do is read, I could spend hours a day reading if I have a good book.

My all time favortie author is Karen Kingsbury. She writes Christian fiction and whenever I read her books I cry. Her books are very inspirational and show how life always throws you curves but if you step back, take a deep breath and believe in God all things are going to be just fine.

Another favorite of mine is Stephenie Meyer, you may all know her as the author of the Twlight books but she also has some other great books out there. Twlight was an amazing series I couldn't stop reading but I have also enjoyed her what people call "science fiction for those who don't like science fiction."

Finally a new author I have begun to read is Nora Roberts, I haven't gotten through too many of her books but so far they have been great fictional reads.

Something else that I have always loved to read and learn more about is fitness and nutrition. Although these are great reads I do enjoy learning how to stay healthy and fit.

For those of you have a spare minute and like to read I recommend any and all of these authors to you! There is nothing like picking up a great book and reading. I hope you enjoy!

Everyday at the J-O-B

This is what my office looks like. What do I do? Well that is complicated in the fact that I don't just do one certain thing. I started working at Actuate Apparel as the bookkeeper, and I soon took on many additional exciting roles.

The cubical is where I start my day, I enter the bank transactions and deal with the books. I then print off the orders from the internet, make invoices, and order tee shirts.

This is where I spend the second part of my day, actually making the t-shirts!

The machine you see below is the DTG (direct to garment). You simply place a shirt on the board and send the image to the printer from the computer, just like printing a paper. The ink then soaks straight into the shirt.

From there you move to the heat press, which is 375 degrees so on hot days it is hot standing in front of, where you press it for about 10 seconds so all the ink dries.

And then you have t-shirts!

Finally I package the shirts and print labels to ship them away.

There you have it, for all of you who didn't know how I spend 5 days of the week!

Friday Favorites

Scrapbooking!!
My backslash in my kitchen

My new wall decor from Bed Bath and Beyond

Cheech's First Camp

We thought it would be fun to go camping and of course we took little Cheech!

He loved looking out onto the water, I think this was the first time he had ever seen a large body of water!

He had a great time running around, chasing bugs and being thrown into the water by Austin. The first time he fell in I freaked out thinking he wasn't going to be able to swim back in. I started yelling at Austin to come help but then I realized Cheech is a dog he can at least doggie paddle...right?!? He swam in and Austin thought it was hilirious to continuing throwing him in the water. Although it wasn't an official camping trip, because it was going to storm and we had to leave, we had a great time and can't wait to take Cheech again!

PUMP IT UP!!

This post is about a month late, but I have been super busy with school that I havent had much time to put anything up.

We celebrated Bubba Zach's birthday at Pump it Up. He turned 4 this year and is growing too quick. Zach and his brother Andrew are like the brothers I never had.

We definitely all got into the Fun!!

Brooke and Austin racing down the obsticle course

Rockie

This week we got a new addition to our family: ROCKIE.

He is a 4 month boston terrier

Austin went to Jamesport, 80 miles outside of Kansas City, to get him. We named him Rockie after Austin's favorite baseball team, the Colorado Rockies. Austin went with Jason to get Rockie and it looks like Jason came home with a little friend too!

Cheech and Rockie are already buds!!

Mini Vacation

This past month we were able to get away for awhile and enjoyed a nice weekend in Kansas City. We got lucky and stayed at the Argosy Casino/Hotel. It was by far the nicest place i have ever slept. This was the first time I had been t a casino too. I got a little crazy with the slots but luckily only lost 20 dollars.


After a day at the casino we headed up to a Cardinals game, yes we were in KC and it should be stated we headed up to a Royals game BUT we are not Royals fans, we are St. Louie fans (except Austin who likes Colorado).

The stadium was very nice, and this was both Austin and my's first professional baseball game.

My parents and sisters joined us!

My Big Catch

We decided to try out the old fishing game again, and I was excited to prove i wasnt completely unable to fish. We went to Great Plains Nature Center off 96 and Woodlawn. I was more than successful catching a few fish.

I wasnt too sure about holding the fish too close to me as you can see, Austin kept wanting to take pictures to prove I could catch one, but the dang things kept wiggling crazy!

Austin also taught me how to identify the fish I was catching, as you can see I caught a crappie, a blue gill, and a bass.

Austin also caught a few himself.