DIY Valentine's gift.

I am certain you have probably seen this project all over pinterest. 

I made this for Dave 2 years ago and I love it. 

It was such a simple, inexpensive DIY gift but it is really thoughtful too. 

Here is the how to:

Supplies:

Construction paper

1 desk of cards

Directions:

First, think of 52 reasons you love your significant other. 

Mine were anywhere from:

'You love me for who I am'

to

'You always give me a smile when I look at you'

to 

'You make me laugh at least once a day'

You can write these or type them, 

I typed mine up and printed them all out on a piece of off-white paper.

Second, I glued that piece of paper to another piece of red so I could add color to it. 

Then I glued that piece to each card. 

Last, make a front and back cover. Hole punch each card and put a ring through the top left. 

It turned out to be a fun little flip book of reasons I love Dave. 

Happy LOVE month!

DIY Valentine's Wreath

I love holidays. 

Really I love any reason to celebrate something. 

So naturally, I love to decorate. 

Seeing as we live in just a little over 500 sq ft of space, I don't have a lot of space to decorate. 

(I cannot wait until we move in three weeks!!!)

I think it is really fun to have a new wreath on the door for every season/holiday. 

I always keep my wreath inside because then I get to see it more often

and I really don't have that many people come to our door anyways. 

This wreath is super simple. 

All you need is:

1 round styrofoam wreath

1/3 yard burlap

2 felt squares

1 yard of twine

Super glue/ glue gun

First cut about 4 inches of the burlap.

Put a light layer of super glue or glue from a glue gun around half of the wreath. 

Then wrap the burlap around and around and around :)

Do this until you reach the beginning and just glue down the excess on the back side o the wreath. 

Take your felt square and cut our a curly cue circle. 

You can make this as big or little as you would like. 

Hold the middle of the circle and start wrapping the felt around it. 

This is much easier than you think .

Put a little bit of glue on the end to hold it together. 

Add glue to the bottom of the rose and place it wherever you'd like on your wreath. 

For the burlap banner, cut out four triangles with your burlap. 

If you have a glue gun, glue each triangle to the twine. 

Otherwise, you will probably want to stitch them. 

Write whatever word you would like with permanent marker. 

Tie the banner to both sides of the wreath. 

Happy LOVE month!

enjoy.

What is your favorite Valentine's Day decor?

Leave me a link, I want to check yours out :)

Yearly Memory Jar DIY

One of my favorite ideas I found on pinterest was a memory jar.

We started ours at the beginning of 2012.

I found a basic sized mason jar and labeled it 2012

with a bunch of sticky notes and a pen close by. 

Throughout the year, we would write down little moments that we wanted to remember. 

I loved the idea because it wasn't an every day thing which made it stress-free!

I think it would be fun to read through all the memories on New Year's Eve

but we were in Utah and I forgot to bring our jar. 

So we went through our memories last weekend when we got home.

Here are some of my favorites from 2012:

-We went jet skiing in bearlake... Dave drove us straight into a wave!

 We basically went fully under water while on the jet ski.

-'I am handsome because you are beautiful! 

And two ugly people can't be together'

Quote from Dave

-SarahJane did her first v6 ever and flashed it.

She took first in the Ogden Front climbing competition. 

-Dave ordered a German Chocolate Shake at Shivers...

took one bite and threw it away in the 711 trash, where he bought a slurpee!

-The Leprechauns came and turned out toilet water green

and made us green pancake mix!

Happy St. Patricks Day!

-We had first row tickets to the University of Florida vs South Carolina game!

And we were on Sports Center!

-SarahJane passed her NCTRC Exam and became 

a certified recreational therapist!

-Dave got a full Teaching-Assistantship to Florida, 

Gainesville here we come!

There were many more fabulous memories of 2012 that we shared with each other. 

This was such a simple way to record fun events throughout the year.

We will definitely be doing it in 2013!

Christmas Decor on a budget.

First off, have you entered my twenty-five winner giveaway yet?!
Okay, now that you have entered...
We are heading home to Utah this year for Christmas..

Can I get a WAHOOO?? 

We are really excited... just 18 days left until we go home.

Anyways... this leads me to the fact that we won't be here on Christmas day. 

I love christmas trees but I just can't convince myself to pay for one

when we are gone for three weeks of the holiday season. 

So I purchased a few other things to help our apartment feel the Christmas spirit.

1. Cinnamon Pine Cones

These are essential in my opinion. They act like an air freshener and your apartment smells like christmas!

Dave was skeptical at first but now he wants a bag for our bedroom and one for the car too!

$2.99 for a bag of them at Michaels!

2. Wreath- Inside the front door

Okay, I know this may be weird but I like to put our wreath inside the door. 

We don't get very many visitors at our place and I like to look at it. 

I love all the fun ideas for wreaths this year but I wanted to use the pine one so it would kind of substitute for our tree.

I think I paid about $7 for all the supplies at Michael's.

3. A bowl of Peppermints

First off, I think a candy bowl is essential in every home. Sometimes you just need a little treat!
yes, we made this bowl at Color Me Mine while we were dating :)

Peppermints are ESSENTIAL to the holiday season. So yummy. 

$1.50 for a small bag at Publix.

4. Stockings and lights

Since we don't have a tree, I just put lights around our little Tv stand- Don't judge my tape on the side haha

As for the stockings.. I made them with the help of my mom last year. Homemade is so much better than store bought!

They are just burlap and felt, with lace and ribbon addition on mine and buttons and more burlap on his. 

I love them so much- I will definitely make similar ones for my kids. 

$2.50 for the lights at target & I think I paid $12 for the stocking supplies last year.

5. Snowman Light

Isn't it cute? It is our own little night light. 

My mother in law sent it to us to add to the christmas decor this year. 

Sometimes I get so stressed with Holiday decor because I want to do everything.

Plus, the blogging world doesn't help because I see so many cute things!!

But I do have to come to the realization that we are still in school

 and need to keep decorations to a minimum. 

Just remember, you really can add little things that are so simple and inexpensive

that will bring the holiday spirit to your home :)

Don't forget to link up your christmas posts 

with the Bloggers for Christmas link up tomorrow!

My heart will always be in Utah {DIY}

 

I love pinterest. Am I the only one that pins a million DIY projects and never does any?

I decided to change this the other day... so I browsed through my DIY board and picked this.

Isn't it so fun? Well, I clicked on it and it was just a photo. Ugh. 

So I invented my own way of making it...

DIY: My heart will always be in UTAH

So I went to Michael's with my 50% off one item coupon in search for the supplies. 

I ended up getting an 8x10 canvas board. 

Then I got blue paint and ivory embroidery floss. 

Total: $6!

(I already had the nails- maybe 2 bucks from home depot)

I painted the canvas and nailed the nails in place for the state outline. 

Then I made up my own little heart, where SLC is....

Next, I took the embroidery floss and wrapped it around the outside nail, 

connecting it to the heart nails. Make sense?

Ta-Dah!!

What do you think?

        

Truly.

My heart will ALWAYS be in Utah. 

I still call it home :)

Fall Wreath on a Budget

I have been wanting to make a wreath for our front door

and pretend like it is Fall outside. 

Since I am married to a graduate student...

decorating is not the highest priority on my husband's budget. 

I looked at a lot of different ideas on Pinterest

and I came up with this gem...

Supplies: 

Wreath(preferably straw, covered in plastic wrap) $3.99

Yarn $3.99

Glue- I used wood because I already had it.

Felt squares 5/$1.00

ribbon $0.50

Wreath hanger (normally I would just nail it in but our door isn't wood) $3.99

total: $13.50

(Everything was purchased at Michael's)

First. 

Wrap the wreath in yarn. 

I used a brush and spread the plastic wrap with glue

then wrapped the yarn.

 Don't be fooled by this step, it took me 1.5 hours

Next.

Decorate however you'd like. 

I did felt flowers.

Cut the felt in a circle, then make curly-cues (see below)

Then wrap it around itself into a flower.

Apply the flowers with glue.

I just used wood glue here too.

Final product. 

I am excited to put it on the front door.

And pretend there are lots of fall leaves outside!

What are some of your favorite Fall decorations?

Do you have a favorite Fall recipe?

What is your favorite thing about Fall?