Are they clean or dirty???

The age old question that your husband always asks you.....Are these dishes clean or are they dirty? Well, now my husband won't have any excuse why he doesn't unload the dishwasher full of clean dishes or put his dirty dishes into the dishwasher. We constantly go round and round about why he feels the need to place his dirty dishes on the counter right next to the sink instead of just rinsing them off and putting them in the dishwasher. Ahhhh! It drives me crazy! I could spend all day talking about these small little annoyances, but I'll spare you the drama.

Since we both agreed this year to only spend $20 on each other and not buy gift cards (I'm forcing him to be creative this year) I decided that I would make him this nifty little magnet for our dishwasher. Unfortunately he spied it on the table while the mod podge was drying, so it's not going to be a surprise at Christmas, but oh well. It is now completely finished with super strong magnets on the back (hopefully the girls won't take it off like they do with all of the magnets on the fridge) and some cute Ric rac trim. While I'm sure it won't be on the top 5 of his favorite Christmas gifts this year, it will definitely be on my list!

Oh, don't forget that this is the present that will be going in the Victoria's Secret bag as mentioned here!

For the other little chef in our family....

This chef's hat has been made for a few days now and I was waiting to post it with the completed apron, but alas the apron is still not finished. I am having problems with my sewing machine as of late (it is my grandmother's sewing machine and is a really old Kenmore from Sears....so crazy! There's more to that story and I'll have to tell you all later) So, I will post Jake's hat now as it is done and will be embroidered with his name on the front. I can't wait to see him open it up on Christmas Eve (that's when we do presents with my family) and explain to him what it is. My girls have seen both of the chef's hats laying around the house but have no clue what they are, so I'm sure he won't either!

I do have one confession to make though....I tried Jake's hat on Peyton just to see how it looked and if it would fit right....it looks adorable!!

Thrifty under Fifty Challenge

After literally hours of learning how to make a blog and trying to get it just right, I am finally writing my first post! Wow I wish I was more excited, but at this late hour I'm more ready to go to bed than anything (it's about 12:30 am). Yes, you guessed it, I am a blogging virgin. I have always wanted to try my hand at blogging but just needed a push to get me started....and what a great push it is!

On to the reason for me starting my blog (other than the fact that I feel like I needed one for my family and mommy business). I am totally addicted to this wonderful crafting website called www.youcanmakethis.com. There you can find tons of e-books that have instructions and patterns on how to do almost any craft you can think of. Now these aren't those cheesy crafts you did in elementary school or the ones your grandma would make you (sorry GG! ), these are super cute and fashionable clothes, jewelry, knit and crochet items, and the list could go on. If you haven't been there before be sure to check it out and see where I spend a lot of my online time.

Anyway, I received an e-mail from them about a challenge for Christmas called Thrifty under 50. Essentially, they will choose 50 people to make presents for as many people on their lists that they can for $50 and under.
"$50, are you kidding me?" you say.
And my answer to that would be "NO."
Am I crazy? Yes!
Am I crafty? YES!!
And am I cheap? OH YEAH!!
So, of course I had to apply and with my clever writing capabilities (I'm not bragging here....I'm only a few classes away from a bachelor's degree in English. Getting pregnant twice on accident is the reason why I'm only a few classes away, but that's another story) I was chosen from over 300 people to join the challenge! Can you tell I'm incredibly excited? Well I am! I wanted to wake my whole family up the night I found out, but I figured waking the girls would lead to a terrible following day. I immediately wrote an e-mail to my closest friends and family letting them know that I had some great news, and no I was not pregnant again.

Here I am now, blogging, staying up late (again), planning out all of the Christmas gifts I can make with the stash of supplies I already have on hand, stressing out about my December 15th deadline, and loving every minute of it! I can't wait to get started creating and getting my Christmas presents done early this year!

I know this is a super long blog posting, but I promise they will be shorter from now on. Lastly, I want to thank YouCanMakeThis.com for this awesome opportunity and for choosing me out of the many who applied. I am up to the challenge and am honored to be on the website owner's own team! Yikes.....that means I've gotta get goin'! Okay off to bed for me. I've got a super busy day tomorrow of planning, searching the web, cleaning up my crafting room/Maddie's room, and getting a complete game plan all mapped out. Wish me luck and come back often to check in on me!!

You stay crafty San Diego!!
(Okay, that's totally corney but if you've seen the movie Anchorman with Will Farrel, then you will get my little adaptation on his little catch phrase. Just bear with me, I'm exhausted and getting over the flu.)