Hidden in Plain Sight

Sometimes what (or in this case, who) you're looking for is hidden in plain sight.

Most of you know I am a writer, but you may not know I also have a small interior design business. As an interior designer, I have a theory: often times you have what you need. It might be a lamp, a small table, a vase, or a chair, but whatever it is, you often already possess it. Look around. You might not see it at first, because it's being used in another capacity or in a room with different decor. However, many times, what you need is already there. All it takes to find it is your imagination and the ability to see things in a new light.

This is what I've done, except not with a lamp or a vase or a chair. It's what I've done with my life partner. 

As some of you know, I was in a relationship with SG (Special Guy) who I met less than six weeks after my ex left. When we met, I was an emotional disaster. SG was wonderful and made me feel special. He held me as I cried rivers of tears and told me everything would be alright. "These things take time," he said. He knew from experience. He'd been through it himself. His kind words and gentle touches helped heal a small part of the painful hole in my heart. 

But, two months ago, I broke up with SG. I realized I needed to be on my own, date other guys, and spread my wings. I'd never lived alone and never dated much, since my ex and I got together when we were both very young. I joined Match.com and dated. A lot. I went on 15 dates in six weeks and enjoyed every one of them.

One night I was out on a date with a nice, Jewish doctor from New York. Between a bite of spicy tuna roll and a sip of hot sake, it hit me: I already had what (who) I was searching for. In an instant, everything seemed clear. I could barely wait to end the (quite lovely) date I was on and speak to my ex-boyfriend. I hoped he missed me, would forgive me for leaving, and would take me back.

I'd posted on my Match.com profile that, "I'll know you're the one when you hold me in your arms and I feel like I'm home."

My ex-boyfriend came over that night and we held each other tight. I sunk into his arms and knew I was home.

This two year journey from when my ex-husband left until now has been the most challenging and enlightening time of my life. My boyfriend (yes, we are back together again, and this time for good!), kids, parents, sisters, and a few, close friends lifted me up, dusted me off, and time after time, pointed me in the right direction. Also, many of you wrote inspiring words of encouragement on my blog or Twitter, and for that I will always be grateful.

So, what or who in your life are you "missing?" What or who is hidden in plain sight? Look around. You may be surprised.

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Tricky Little Leprechauns

There's just something about having little ones that makes holidays just brim over with excitement. I love getting things set up and all ready the night before, and am just GiDdY with the thought of how their faces will look when they wake up in the morning and see all that the day will have in store for them! I love to watch their eyes get big as they slowly turn their head from side to side, trying to take in every ounce of the world I've created around them, and then...the smile.

The smile that says what no words in my language could say. The smile that leaves them speechless, as if saying the words they're thinking would break the spell of the magic that surrounds them. The smile that makes every moment of the previous late night of preperation worth it.

And then comes the laughter.
The laughter that starts in their heart and comes from deep within their chest. The laughter that is contagious as it fills every corner of the room. The laughter that is priceless because it comes from the mouth of a child.
Your child.

And that is why I do this. Decorate, craft, use that dusty old right-side of the brain, and go hog-wild crazy for holidays. For those moments. And I believe moments make memories.

Looking for some ideas to create some memories with your kids...how about some of these fun St. Patrick's ones!

Last year we woke up to find our kitchen had been turned topsy turvy by those tricky little leprechauns! How do we know it was them you ask?


I think their little green footprints they left across the kitchen floor gave them away! (Just washable green fingerpaint-mine was the Crayola brand. Just curl your hand up into a fist for the foot part and use your fingerprint to make the toes!)


A whole trail of them as a matter of fact that led to...


...the refrigerator!


"What did he do?! What did he do in the fridge?!" Tyler was screaming. We opened it up to find that the leprechaun had turned our milk green! They thought that was so awesome-especially Tyler since his favorite color is green-and thoroughly enjoyed drinking it and having it in their cereal that morning for breakfast!

When Tyler went into the bathroom to get dressed he screamed to me, "MOM! There is green pee in our toilet!" What?! That tricky leprechaun went potty in our toilet and we thought it was very rude that he didn't flush away his business!


We were so excited when we saw this green footprint on the fireplace since our trap is sitting up there and hoped that we had caught the tricky little man that had wreaked havoc all over our house!


Awww! It looks like we almost caught him!! Better luck this year!


That afternoon a couple moms got together and put together a little St. Patricks day party. We had a yummy green lunch and then did some fun activities. We started out by painting some Blarney stones! These weird squinty eye people are me and my kiddos...we may or may not have the ability to be in direct sunlight without shrieking in pain-vampires much?


A little clover face-painting :)


Next we made some clover necklaces...


Lastly, we did a little scavenger hunt. We heard a knock on the door and found this clover from Larry the Leprechaun...


We followed 5 more clues till we found the last one where Larry had left the kids a pot of gold!


They had an awesome time and had lots of fun stuff to bring home!


I feel like the LUCKIEST mom in the world to have these two bugs in my life!




I know I said this would be my last St. Patrick's post, buuuuut I totally forgot I have just ONE more thing to share with you! Are you totally sick of this yet?!?! Ha ha, well if you have a little girl you just might want to check back tomorrow for a last minute, easy peasy holiday skirt idea! ;) Thanks for reading!

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St. Patrick's Mantel...and stuff :)

Okay so I did not intend for all the rest of my St. Patrick's day goodness to end up in one post-or take a WEEK for me to get around to it!!!-BUT that's just what happens when it's almost 60 degrees outside in Northern Utah in early MARCH! We have spent hours at the park, on bikes, having picnics, playing with friends and just enjoying this amazing weather!

At nights I have been slaving away :) working on getting the Relief Society birthday activity planned. In my church I have been asked to serve as the person who puts together the quarterly activities for the woman ages 18+. Every year in March we celebrate the "birthday" of the Relief Society which is an organization that was formed 170 years ago this year! This is our biggest activity of the year and I have a very small committee -2 people-that help me pull this off so I am very busy in March! You can read more about the Relief Society organization here.

March will also hold a lot of memories for my family this year, as my younger brother will be returning home from serving a two year mission for our church. He comes home ONE week from today (eek!!!!!!) and so I have also been doing everything that has to do with getting ready to go on a week and a half trip with two kids (hubby's staying home for work/school)!

Aaaaand-as if that's not enough!-we have our bi-annual housing inspections (oh the joys of living in a rental!) this week and we're talking white glove test, pull out the fridge and clean behind it, clean out and re-organize the whole garage(and for my thrift store loving self it looks like an episode of Hoarders in there) so that has been a BIG project as well. But oh how I do love my CLEAN CLEAN organized house right now!

So can you PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE forgive me for my absence this past week, I didn't mean to leave you hanging! And I'll just go ahead and ask for a little forgiveness in advance because I don't imagine there will be too many more posts this month either! But when I can finally get around to taking some pictures and writing up posts, I do have lots to share with you...A fun menu planner I made, some re-purposing of old shutters to hold photos, and LOTS of spring decor! I can't wait to show you!

So just in case you're doing a little last minute decorating for the old st patty's holiday, or want to store some ideas away for next year, here are a few fun things I did to amp up the spirit in our house! :)

The mantel...

**the Lolli banner tutorial and St. Patricks printable on the window frame above the mantel can be found on my previous post**

Even though St. Patrick's isn't a big decorating type holiday, I still wanted to update my mantle for it but spend as close to ZERO dollars as possible! I found that just by digging around the house for green things I already had, spray painting other things (with green paint I already had), and making the rest by hand I had a fun, new look and spent $5 for the whole mantel decor!!!

I found this set of tiny leprechaun hats at JoAnns for $1 the week before st. patty's last year and stuck them in a little glass vase I already had. The FUN leprechaun trap behind it was made by recycled materials from around the house, and you can read about the making of it HERE.

I already had these black candlesticks (originally from the thrift store and then painted black) on hand, and to top them I dug out one of my green bean balls, and an old candle-updated with some green scrapbook paper and embellishments from my lolli banner. I downloaded THIS free printable from Today's Fabulous Finds, printed it out at home, and then used spray adhesive to glue it to an old, green piece of wood that was sitting in my garage (I like being able to display things using different looks...versus always putting things up in picture frames).

Next, I took a cute little glass jar I had (I found these puppies for .88 each at our dollar store-somehow knowing I was saving .12 made ALL the difference ha ha!-and stocked up!!), put a little foam leprechaun sticker on the front (from the same set of foam stickers from JoAnns that I used for the lolli banner) and filled it with rolos to make our own little pot- o'-gold! **NOTE-this pot was full of "gold" not very long ago...

I love, love, LOVE displaying holiday photos of my kids throughout the year and I just loved these pictures I took of them last St. Patrick's day and wanted a different way to show them off rather than just putting them in a frame, so I grabbed these plastic clipboards from walmart (they were out of the wood ones) for about a dollar each and embellished away!

I first covered them with scrapbook paper using spray adhesive, but I didn't love the way they looked so I went over them with a coat of green spray paint. I love how the bumps in the paper still give off a little textured look, but it's not as distracting as the paper was alone (before the paint was put over it). I didn't want to go way crazy with the embellishments because I wanted the main focus to be the pictures, so I just added some different ribbons, buttons, and gems that I already had in my little stash.

To clip the picture to the board I used a fun, decorated clothespin. I made them by spray painting them yellow (you can get a pack of like 100 from the $ store), mod-podging on a little strip of scrapbook paper, and then adding a felt clover (with a little added bling in the middle of the clover b/c you know I just can't help myself!!) Cuteness right?!

This St. Patrick's printable made by Michelle at A Little Tipsy was the perfect thing to place between the pictures of the two people in my life that I'm most LUCKY to have. (I don't consider being married to my husband "lucky" since I psychically chose him...I chalk that up more to good life choices :) )

And lastly, some easy and cute wood blocks. These were just cut from some 2x4's we had in the garage that were then spray painted black and decorated using scrapbook paper mod-podged on and vinyl letters cut from my cricut (you could use scrapbook stickers if you don't have a machine cutter).

The Mr. actually cut a whole bunch of blocks for me at one time out of a 2x4, and I've decorated them for all the different holidays throughout the year. I do the front and the backs of each block to get even more use out of each set! The back of these ones are for valentines day :)

Whew! Sorry for the overload, I meant for these to be separate posts! I just have ONE more St. Patrick's related post for you coming up tomorrow with some fun ideas to do for your kidlets ON St. Patrick's day. Until then...thank you SO much for reading!! Getting your comments throughout the week makes me smile SOOOO big!

Have a great day!

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I have a little sister...

So I have a little sister. Well I actually have 3 little sisters and my littlest little sister (who's not so little at all anymore since she's a JUNIOR in high school!!) is Alena. (are you sick of the word 'little' yet-hehe) Well all of us sisters love to get goofy and take pictures of ourselves, do silly photoshoots together and ham it up for the camera. Pretty much anytime we can take pictures of ourselves...we do. Ha Ha, we're just dorks that way! But Alena has a love for the camera that none of the rest of us could ever come close to. She is fantastic on both sides of the lens and does not let her camera leave her side whether it's taking pictures of herself, or herself and friends...or herself :), she is always ready with a smile. Right now she has an opportunity to win a photoshoot from Shannon Kaeding Photography by simply getting the most 'likes' for her photo on the Shannon Kaeding Photography Facebook page HERE. I would love it SO much if you could just do a quick little clickety clack-clack on your keyboard and 'like' the photographer's FB page and then go HERE to the contest and click on Alena's picture and 'like' it. That's it! Good luck Alena, you're beautiful!!!!

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Goddess of My Existence or Time For Me to Fly

I am in a period of great transition and growth. I am "coming alive," feeling the winds of change blowing; the Earth spinning beneath my feet.

Experiencing life by myself for the first time in over 30 years is one of the greatest gifts imaginable. I am allowing my direction to flow naturally and my spirit to soar purely and authentically. As someone  smart once told me, I am learning to, "Move my brilliant ass out of the way and let the magic happen!" 

In keeping with listening to the (non-psychotic) voices from within (I do my best to ignore the truly crazy ones)...

I purchased a used Baldwin upright piano (pics to follow after it's delivered). Baldwin, by the way, is the name of the town I grew up in on Long Island; a place where I had a ridiculously happy childhood. Coincidence? Maybe. But I'm inclined to believe less in coincidence as I grow older. 

I am dating in a powerful and fun way. It is a treat to be with people and listen to where they are along their journey, all the while searching for "the one" I will share the second half of my life with. 

I've been dancing like no one's watching (which, unless there are holes in my walls I'm unaware of, they're not) and getting a huge amount of joy (and cardio work-outs!) from it. Music moves me like nothing else, yet I've pushed it away in order to heal. Maybe the next step will be to start writing songs again? I hope so. That would be truly wonderful. 

I am spending time with my cat, Emma, who emulates all things Zen.

I've been offered a publishing contract with an independent publisher that I am considering.

And, I am enjoying the sweet melodies in the peace that surrounds me; beautiful sounds I've successfully muted much of my life.

Next month will be exactly two years since my 7.5 magnitude emotional earthquake. I was told it takes two years to get over such an event, and from my present vantage point, I would have to agree. I am finally feeling whole again; happy, calm, and totally at peace with the unknown that lies ahead. What I do know is I get to create the direction of my life. I am the artist yielding the brush; the writer holding the quill; the sculptor molding the clay. I am the goddess of my existence, able to sprinkle magic dust wherever and however I please.

With friends and family lifting me up with their ever-present love and support, I feel safe and able to spread my wings. In the words of REO Speedwagon, "I believe it's time for me to fly."

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St. Patty's "lolli" banner and a Cuh-UTE printable!

I think the thing I love most about decorating for St. Patrick's day, is that it can be SO simple and super light and easy on the pocket-book! (versus other holidays where your whole house turns into a wonderland :) ) By just adding a few *green* touches here and there to your home, it is just enough magic for this fun holiday!

Last year I made this easy and cute lolli banner using this tutorial from Michelle at A Little Tipsy and it cost me all of two little buckaroos to make!

The CUTE Subway art hanging above is from the adorable blog eighteen25-they always have my favorite subway art! (and it's still available for free download!) I just popped it in a thrift store frame painted green and BAM...cuteness!

If you've got some green scrapbook paper, a cereal box, some green fabric scraps and some ribbon you can make yourself a sweet little banner too! (and if you don't, you can pick up a sheet or 2 of paper from your local craft store and some plain green fabric and make one for a few bucks too!) I started with the clover in the center.


As Michelle suggested, I used a cereal box to cut out a clover shape-I just free-handed it. Then I cut strips of fabric in about 1" width strips.


I wrapped those strips around the cut out pieces of my clover just hot-gluing it to the cardboard wherever the strip ended and then started a new piece. I then hot-glued all the pieces together to get my clover. It doesn't have to be perfect because the center will be covered by a lolli.


You can find a perfect tutorial on how to make lollies here...mine we're 4". I used some 3D foam stickers I found for a dollar at JoAnns to place in the center, but I think buttons or ribbons would be cute in the center too if you don't have stickers.


Then I hung them all from...a shoelace!! St. Patrick's ribbon was a couple dollars, but this set of shoelaces were only a dollar at JoAnns so I opted to use that! You say ghetto, I say frugal! ha ha!


The clover just hangs by running the shoelace through the openings, but I attached the lollies using paperclips-so easy!


Now hang that little cutie wherever you want and you've got some cute, fun holiday decor for next to nothing!


I'll be sharing a few more ideas on how to get a little more 'Irish spirit' in your home later this week for ZERO dollars so be sure to check back!

Thanks for reading my friends!!

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Just a Peek...Our Snow day

One of my favorite bloggers-Amy from Naptime Crafters- does a cute post about once a week or so that she calls Just a Peek, where she shares a pic or two from her "real" life giving us readers a little peek into her. I sorta love that.

As I was going through some pictures from my camera tonight to put a post together for my personal family blog, I thought, hey why not give my craft reading friends a little peek into my real life every once in awhile too?! If you hate it, I'll just stick to craft posts-promise!

So today I thought I'd share with you just a little peek into the fun snow day we had today! My husband came home this afternoon for a little 2 hour break between work and school (I know 2 hours may not seem "little", but when he's gone by 8 and not home till midnight 2 hours doesn't feel very long.) It had been snowing ALL day-good sticky, big, chunky flakes of snow (our first REAL snow this winter!) and he walked in the door and announced we were going sledding! (and by "go" I mean walk 30 feet out our front door to our little hill) You'da thought he said Santa Clause was standing outside with presents the way the kids were screaming, and jumping up and down, and running around like crazy trying to gather up all their snow gear, they were SO excited!


I hate the snow. I'm pretty sure I've mentioned that before, but since there hasn't really been any this year even I was excited to get out there and have some fun!








One of my absolute FAVORITE things in this world (even more than mint oreo IceCream which is seriously saying something) are rosy, red cheeks. I love them in the summer from a hard day's work of sweat and laughter, and I love them in the winter from meticulous snowman making, and spontaneous sled days.


But I especially love them, because in one moment, mommy's nice glove-warmed hands can warm them instantly upon them rushing up to you, out of breath, saying, "Mom, this was SO fun...but I'm really cold, can you warm me up?". Then I take their sweet, little, rosy-red faces in my hands, and I kiss their red, icy noses, and I look into their eyes full of excitement, and I hear the laughter falling from their lips, and in that moment...everything is perfect.


Have a WONDERFUL weekend friends! Thanks for reading!

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