by jcastles | Nov 2, 2012 | Crafts, Family, Holiday Crafts, Uncategorized
They say when one door closes another one opens. Well, when becoming a mother again closed on me this amazing opportunity presented itself….and i’m am ecstatic!!
I had posted some photos of my crafts on my personal facebook page and was contacted by a friend asking if I’d like to be involved in a small business promo for the holidays for an organization she’s involved with (Sponsor Adoptions, Inc). At first I wasn’t sure I could do it. Not because of my time or the thought that I might not sell anything. I was actually afraid that I’d not be able to keep up with orders. So I guess that’s a good outlook, right? Well after a few hours worth of thinking it through I decided that I’d get involved in their Holiday Promo. The funny thing is that morning I was talking to my husband about selling cake balls for extra cash this holiday season. So i’m not doing cake balls, lol! Sorry friends!!
I am extremely excited about this opportunity. I’ve been making wreath’s and crafting on and off for years and have tossed the idea of selling my crafts but to get to actually do it is just wonderful!!
The next awesome thing is in December I’ll be taking my first Wilton Course at Michaels!! I know alot already but I hope this class will fill in the holes and make me better!
Here are a few of my favorite new items! For a better glimpse of my products visit my facebook page!
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by jcastles | Oct 29, 2012 | Crafts, Holiday Crafts, Uncategorized
I have no idea why this has NEVER occurred to me before the other night. So we get all ready to carve our giant pumpkin (biggest we’ve ever bought) and my husband asks for a bowl for the “guts”. I gave him the largest in the kitchen and thought…..I sure do hate cleaning the dried “guts” off the bowl. So it hit me! Use a grocery sack in the bowl. It fit perfectly and wow….all I did was stuck it in the dishwasher for any residue that might be on it. I seriously told my husband that I thought of this all on my own…that I didn’t even use Pinterest or Google, lol!! The other think we do that makes clean up easy is to cut open a trash bag and cover the table with it. Newspaper usually gets wet and cleaning that off a table is not fun!
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by jcastles | Oct 25, 2012 | Uncategorized
I’ve got some projects coming up and since i’m not very fast using my silhouette yet I needed some practice. I found a saying about brothers that I wanted to put in the boys bathroom and I LOVE it! It turned out great….well it is a little crooked but i’m going to replace it and make it bigger (and straight). I wasn’t sure how’d it turn out so I didn’t make it real big in case I screwed it up, I didn’t’ want to waste my vinyl!
I put it on the bathroom wall above the boys chore charts. I plan on putting a boy figure next to the saying….I’m so so very happy with this!!.
by jcastles | Oct 20, 2012 | Crafts
Over the summer I painted one of my two plant stands. The first one I painted a boring black but that’s because it was going in my kitchen and the hubbs said no to teal. 🙁 It’s still pretty though!
So now that I’m feeling better I’ve spent today painting everything I haven’t been able to for a few months! My garage floor is a rainbow now! Not sure how the hubbs is going to like that when he gets home, woops!
So a little while back I bought a plant for my porch…hoping I could keep it alive. Our brick is an ugly dirty white so I wanted color on the porch. I got a red/orange/yellow/green plant and a yellow pot. I love it! But my 2nd plant stand needed color. So I painted it teal. I’m really loving this teal….like alot!
Isn’t that pretty?!! Now I definitely have color on my porch!
So what I did was I used an old cloth and laquer thinner and wiped the entire stand clean. This removes any debris and gets it ready for paint. Next I just went to town spraying. I love Rustoleum’s spray paint. Goes on quick, clean, and smooth. And usually only needs 1 coat because it’s twice the coverage.
If only the iron table and chairs in my backyard were mine….they’d be teal!!.
by jcastles | Oct 18, 2012 | Crafts, Holiday Crafts
Last year I bought a white pumpkin for Halloween. I’d never seen one and loved it. I just set it on my porch as is and it was so pretty. The best thing about that pumpkin is at Christmas I turned it into a snowman! Then for our actual Jack-O-Lantern we got a mid sized pumpkin and painted it silver. Then we cut an alien face on it and stuck a green glow stick in there….man was that cool and creepy!! Here are our pumpkins from last year. The kids had so much fun just putting stickers on them (which I got at the dollar store!)
We haven’t been to a pumpkin patch yet this year but since Walmart carries pumpkins for $3.88 I had to get one! A few days later a letter came home from my 8 yr olds school saying there was a pumpkin decorating contest. So off to Walmart I went. I found some smallish pumpkins and they were 75 cents a pound…I thought that’s not bad. Well it was. They were $4 and $5 because they were pie pumpkins. WTH!?!?! I didn’t know there was a difference.
So with that I told my son about the contest and asked if he wanted to participate. He said yes. This contest is to decorate the pumpkin not carve so being it was the afternoon before it was due (cause we had a busy weekend, doh!) I told him that we are limited on what we can do. I said we can paint it black and make Darth Vader or green and make Yoda (he loves Star Wars). But I also said unless you can come up with something else that’s easy….he couldn’t. So the hubbs and I discussed materials. I painted it then I ran (well drove) to Michaels for foam and felt. Since it was a late start and Monday’s suck anyways we didn’t get around to putting it together until 8:30 that night. And then it hit us! DUH, we have Darth Vader potato head parts…asked him what he wanted to do and he wanted to use the potato head parts (so now I have foam in Vader colors, lol!). So of course we were having trouble getting the younger one to sleep and guess where the potato head pieces were….yup, his room. That meant once he was asleep we had to sneek that buck out of his room and get the parts. So he had to do it right before school…he barely made it to school on time and he’s usually 15 min early every day. So yah…he won 1st place for best character and 2nd place for overall best! Can you believe that?!! What a great way for us parents to teach our kids to procrastinate on projects till the morning it’s due….cause your gonna ace it!!! Lordy I just know he’s gonna bring this up in high school. Here it is….I think it’s great!
Then since I had gotten my youngest son a pumpkin I thought let’s paint it silver…at this point I had no idea what to do on it so picking my color before was kinda silly. I’d thought about cutting a spider and sticking it to it but then when we were getting the Vader parts I saw it! I’d totally forgotten that we had a Transformer potato head. So there ya go…we pulled it off!
So while I was painting pumpkins I painted my cheap Walmart pumpkin a teal color (Rustoleum’s Lagoon). I was going to put white chevron stripes on it and well since i’m still new and learning my silhouette I totally screwed that up, lol! I thought…what’s fallish that no one does (or that I haven’t seen). Searched fall in the online silhouette store and voila! Up popped acorns. That was it…I had to do that. I added a burlap bow to the stem (which i’m going to redo—I want longer tails) stuck on my acorn vinyl and voila!
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by jcastles | Oct 16, 2012 | Crafts, Holiday Crafts, Uncategorized
It’s beginning to look like fall in my house (not the temps outside though!)! I changed out the placemats to red/yellow/green, put some pine cones out, made up a burlap wreath and of course Target had some awesome pumpkins in their dollar bins (not a dollar but they $2.50 was still worth it!!).
It all started because I went to Hobby Lobby to get a lamp…baaahahahaha!! Yah, what a joke right! I didn’t find a lamp but I made out with this stuff for only $14!!
So here’s my wreath! I still need to cut some burlap to hang it from but I wanted it up so bad I just hung it straight on my door! I love it! I got the brown burlap and the chevron burlap from Hobby Lobby. I know you can’t tell it’s chevron but you will once I make my bow to hang it up with! This was also my first time to make fabric flowers…so easy!!! I watched this tutorial from Jen over at Tatertots and Jello.
Next up is my mantel. I wanted to do some Halloween decor but I just can’t come up with anything at the moment so I decided to start with Fall. I absolutely love these pumpkins from Target! I also used the FREE shape from Silhouette to get my pumpkin in that frame. That was my first official Silhouette project!!!
Happy Fall Ya’ll!!!
And here’s the updated photo with the extra ribbon.
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by jcastles | Oct 3, 2012 | Uncategorized
Soon after we found out I was pregnant I went to the doctor just as anyone should. I was very sick for 3 weeks and nothing was helping….not even the anti nausea meds from the doc. The day after I had blood work done I received a call about it. Apparently there was a certain hormone that was very low. I had additional blood work done and it was still low. So the next thing was a sonogram to see just about how far along I really was (i’m not the type to keep track of my period dates…lol!).
At this point the doctor had warned us that with that low of this certain hormone that there usually isn’t a heartbeat. And there wasn’t. He then told us my options. 1) have a natural miscarriage or 2) get a D&C done. I asked how long does it take to miscarriage naturally and he said up to 6 weeks. I was 9 weeks, the baby was 7 weeks and I was absolutely miserabley sick all day every day! I opted for the D&C.
I had my D&C on Oct 1st. It was quick and I got a nice medically induced no kid interrupted nap. I wanted more of that nap, lol!! When we left the hospital my appetite was back…no nausea…I told the hubbs to hit In N Out Burger! Then I made him get my favorite mexican food for dinner (Don Taco). Then I had In N Out Burger again the next night! I’d been robbed of eating for 3 weeks and my body was ready to eat!
Emotionally we are just fine…everything happens for a reason. We were freaking out in the beginning of how are we going to do this again with the Autistic kiddo. So there was a little sigh of relief but yet it is still sad. We are not a religious family but we appreciate everyones thoughts and prayers. The kiddos took the news just fine as well.
We are slowly getting back to normal around the house….catching up on laundry, karate, making dinner at home, etc.
The other wonderful thing is my niece Leila Elise came into the world yesterday Oct 2nd. She is precious and I can not wait to spoil her (you know since I have all boys!)!!
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by jcastles | Sep 19, 2012 | Family, Uncategorized
On September 11th my husband and I decided it was time to start our journey of loosing weight. A friend of ours started taking this stuff called Plexus Slim and actually lost weight. It made us want to try it.
At first she started taking it w/out changing anything in her diet as she was told to do. She lost weight!!! Real weightloss from a real person we knew! So we had to try it. Ordered it on a Saturday and we got it in the mail the following Monday and started it the next day…a Tuesday. Who starts a diet on a Tuesday?!?! Aren’t you suppose to start on a Monday…..lol!! In addition to her weightloss her energy was up and she started exercising…something that is always hard for someone to start doing if your overweight. Your tired, your hungry, your in pain, your out of breath, your more than just tired…your exhausted. So seeing her story first hand helped us make the choice to do it.
So today I started Plexus Slim and the Accelerator. I have more energy already. But the powder is so dang sweet it’s sickening. I added more water and just chugged it but I’m wanting to try it and I paid $100 for it so yah, I’m trying it! My husband already crashed off the energy on his first day….we’re not sure if it’s the sugary breakfast he had with it or not so we’ll see how his tomorrow goes.
I don’t like sweets that much…shocking if you know me cause all I do is bake sweets! But I don’t like chocolate and really just don’t like sweets. I’m a HUGE Coca-Cola drinker….I’d even say I’m addicted to it. But lately my body has actually been telling me no more soda. I can’t stand how sweet it is….makes me so sick to drink it. People think I drink it for the caffeine. I don’t. I like the flavor of it (well before recently, lol). I like to eat but the foods I like are more savory than sweet. I like meals rather than snacks but I don’t eat meals non-stop. What I mean is I’d rather eat a steak or chicken rather than chips or snack cakes. I like home cooked food way better than eating out probably because that’s how I was raised. I love love love veggies so I definitely eat those. Anyways…I could go on and on to try and help someone understand that what I eat really isn’t my weight issue.
Since I also have an autistic child I’m mentally tired all the time! Way more than i’d ever thought i’d be. He’s just like an energizer bunny…..he goes and goes and goes. So once he hits bed we like to relax on the couch with as much quiet as we can soak up!!
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Well I saved the above as a draft one week ago today. Reason is in the middle of all the craziness of the new weightloss stuff my husband said uh…I think you should take another test. I said really?!!! So I paused my typing to take the “Pee” test! WOWZERS!!!! It had 2 blue lines show up so fast I was shaking like it was my first kiddo!! As I was taking the test the hubbs texted and said well your going to tell me when you take it right (like you care to know that!). I say yes I will. I was trying to pee on a stick, keep the 4 yr old down for a nap (fail), and text all at once. I immediately sent him a pic of the test stick and my exact words were “well there you go. I am.”. LOL!!! So yes….I started a diet and quit in the same friggin day!!!! It’s funny…I know….you may laugh now!!
Do you know how hard it is to keep it from family/friends now that we have facebook! Well I did!! I told my sister and 2 of my friends via text so I could at least tell someone!!! So tonight we finally told the kiddos tonight at dinner. My 8 yr old is ecstatic because the due date is 5 days before his birthday (for now)! And my 4 yr old said “awe….you ate a baby!!!!”. That was by far THE BEST thing i’ve ever heard from his sweet lil mouth!!! And yes then I posted it on facebook! We have one person left to tell and that’s my stepson that will be moving back in the house tomorrow night! Not sure if he’ll like the news being he’s 19 and there’s going to be a baby in the house a month before he turns 20…but whatcha gonna do?!
I can’t wait to share this pregnancy with you all. And now let’s all think PINK….we need a girl in this house!!!
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by jcastles | Sep 18, 2012 | Crafts, Uncategorized
So yah….we’ve been back to school for 3 weeks now and I was going to write about the survival kits I made and well I’ve been so busy I haven’t had any time!! So here goes!!
I decided to be all crafty and give the boys teachers a back to school survivor kit. I figured a bunch of candy was the right way to go. Then I thought well I bet they’ll have dry hands too so I got them some lotion. Then I said oh hell they’re gonna have a headache too..so motrin it was! It was a fun little super easy way for us to say welcome back to school.
I’d been super busy since we had our little “staycation” the weekend before school started that I’d forgotten to even do these. They seriously took me all of 15 min (minus the 15 min store trip) to make. I hit the candy isle and then the trial/travel aisle. I spent more than I thought I would but I was doing it last minute…oh well.
Happy back to school!!!.
by jcastles | Aug 31, 2012 | Household Tips, Uncategorized
So my stove was looking AWFUL!! Had to clean it. I saw this technique on Pinterest and had to give it a try. I don’t keep amonia on hand so I had to go buy some. Got all ready to do it and my gallon baggies wouldn’t hold my burners….grrrr. So I’d given up. A week or so later I saw 2 gallon baggies at Kroger…got those. Then another 2 weeks went by and I finally decided to get it done. And I tell you…it was so easy and they are so clean now!
I also cleaned my stove top….didn’t want to do half the job. I made a paste out of baking soda and peroxide, smeared it all over and then rubbed and rubbed. Not gonna lie…..that part was kind of a PITA. I think it’s only because I put a lot on there. I suggest putting paste on in small amounts in a small area….unlike me where I added the paste all over and then scrubbed.
This is a picture before I started scrubbing.
After I scrubbed.
I put the burners and all the attachments (since I have a gas stove) in the bags overnight with about a couple of tablespoons of ammonia. I honestly just tipped the jug into the bag and said that looks good….I also forgot to take a pic of them in the bag. Here’s a pic of the grime that came off without any scrubbing!! Yes it’s gross!!
So now the stove is all clean and the landlord even liked it!
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