31 Days to a Better Me day 31

WAHOO, we made it 31 Days of me rambling!!!  Thanks for sticking with me.

I did learn a lot from writing a post everyday for 31 days:

I should have chosen a topic to write about that I am passionate about.  I am passionate about my house, design, and beautiful things.  Not so passionate about improving me.

I got great practice at posting often, I think that it will make my blog better.

My blogging skill base has increased 10 fold.  A month ago I had no idea how to do anything.  Now I can do a lot of nifty blogging stuff.

I am now in the habit of taking my camera with me everywhere.  Not only am I prepared for bloggy inspiration, but I am getting a ton of beautiful pics of my kids.

So today for my last idea for me becoming a better me, I am going to take a nap!

I am exhausted by all of the seeming constant blogging, so today I am taking it easy and taking a nap.  Becoming a better me!

I want you to know that the things that I talked about this month I really took to heart.  I am still working on all them.  I just appreciate all of you who stayed with me on this journey!!

I told you that I would show you all of my minions together today, so here they are.  We went to Trunk or Treat at church last night and the "Minions" were a big hit.

Thanks so much for reading!!  Feel free to leave me a comment, I'll try and read them before my nap.  If not I will read them when I get up!! :)

Sunny

31 Days to a Better Me day 30

I have to tell you that my big boys were out of school Thursday and Friday for parent/teacher conferences.  And my husband is out of town with the military.   So by last night we had all been in the house with no breaks from each other for 3 days.  I tried to work on projects and my boys tried to "help" with those projects. 

I was talking on the phone with my sister last night, and I think she just recognized a mother who needed a break.  She said "hey, why don't I come get the boys and we can have a sleep over!!"  At first I thought "No, I am fine"  (shhhh don't tell anyone but, I have a hard time accepting help...don't tell)  Then I thought "hey why not".

I used to spend time alone all the time.  I like it.  I have been surrounded by my little people so long that I have forgotten how much I enjoy being alone. 

I did a little shopping (for more projects), I finished a quilt that I made for my niece yesterday, I watched TV, it was great. 

I think that it is good sometimes to let someone else take the reins and just do me for a minute.  You know what else... I miss my kids!

Spending some time alone made  me a better me!

                                                         Bring on the sweat pants!

Thanks for coming by and looking, feel free to leave me a comment.  I am just hanging out!!

Sunny

31 Days to a Better Me day 29

Listen, I have to be honest I am out of inspiration.  I feel like I am at the end of a marathon, where you want to quit running but you're commited so you just keep going. 

Today I was thinking about something.  Something that I guess could make me a better person.  I was petting my dog, and realized that I just don't pay my furry children enough attention.  I mean I talk to them and tell them to get off whatever project I am working on, but not the kind of attention that I used to pay them.

I have two dogs.  Winston a dachshund (weiner dog), and Hunter a German Shorthair Pointer.

I decided to write this post on my pets and set out to take the cutest pet pictures ever.  I got 1 usable shot of Winston (I now know why they say never work with kids or animals, they just will not cooperate!)  Then I went to find Hunter, he was no where to be found.  I was panic stricken. 

We got Hunter when we were 18 (my pre-husband, and I) he was our child before we had children.  There were big consequences that came along with owning him, but we gladly paid those prices.  He was worth it.

Then as child #1 came he got push out a little, and so on for #2 and #3.  It was only natural as actual children came and needed my attention, they got it.  I am sad about that, but it is what it is.

So today when I couldn't find him, my first thought was that something had happened to him. He is 13, it is not out of the question.  I found him and he was fine but it just reiterated to me that I must make them a bigger part of my day!

I think that I would be a better pet owner, a better me.

Thanks for reading, feel free to leave me a comment!  I am just petting the dog.

I tried to get a picture of Hunter but he just kept thinking that he was in trouble.  So a picture was not worth torturing him over.

Sunny

31 Days to a Better Me day 28

I don't really feel like talking about myself today. I have so much to get done today that it feels a little silly for me to spend my time thinking of yet another way for me to improve myself.

Maybe that is the idea for today. Maybe instead of thinking of lofty ideas of how I could become a better me, I could just get going and get some stuff done.

I think that getting to work could make me a better me!

So I guess that I am off to clean the kitchen, do the laundry, and mow the lawn!!

                                                                                        source If this is your first time looking, thanks for coming!!  Feel free to leave me a comment, I'll read them after I finish the lawn!

Sunny

I made Minions

Okay, I love the movie Despicable Me.  Honestly I love those little minions.  I think that they are so funny and I love to hear them talk.

I also have 3 boys, sooo what would be better than having 3 minions for halloween?   So that is why I made 3 minion costumes.  They are adorable!

Okay so what you will need:
Roll of 1 inch foam (I used 2 rolls for all 3 of my minions)
Bright yellow spray paint
2 packages of black pipe cleaners ( I cut mine in half)
Velcro
Hot glue gun
100 Hot glue sticks (not really 100 but you need a bunch)
1 Round cardboard container (I used an oatmeal carton)
1 Sheet of white felt
1 Sheet black felt
Scissors
Fleece (black, blue, and yellow)

First you must put on the movie, for two reasons.  Reason number one, inspiration.  Reason number 2, keep the kids entertained while you make the costumes.

I started out by wrapping the foam around a boy to see how big of a piece that I needed.

Then just cut it out.

Next you have to notch the top of the head so that when you glue them back together to make a rounded dome shape.  I found that 7 points is really good.  You figure out where the tips should be by taking the  length of you foam and dividing it by 7, measure that out.Then I measured down 3.5 inches in the center in between the points so that I had a reference point of where to cut down to.  I took out some of the excess on the inside corners so that it would be a little easier to glue together.

Glue them together.  Only glue down about 5 inches from the top on the back seam, this way your child can enter the costume from the back.  The points wouldn't stay perfectly together, and kept leaving gaps at the very top.  I used a little duct tape on the inside to hold it all together.  I am not too proud.  This bothered me at first, but turned out to be a very happy accident later.  Love that!

I took my oatmeal container and cut it into round strips.  This I later used as reinforcement for the eye openings,  It also gave me a template to use to cut out the eye openings.

Then I used the duct tape to mark out arm holes, which I then cut out.

Out in the back yard, I used the seed spreader to hold my creation while I spray painted it yellow.  (Remind me to apologize to the Hubs for the spreader!!)

Yeah, I spray painted my wedding ring too (Sorry about that too babe)

Anyhoo, back inside I started to make sleeves.  I didn't have a pattern or anything.  Sometimes you just have to go all commando and figure it out.  So I measured the length of his arm from shoulder to wrist.  Then I took the yellow fleece and draped it around his arm where a sleeve would go and pinned leaving plenty of room for movement.  Then I just stitched it up.  It was not rocket science.

Then I just eased it into the armhole with hot glue just as I would if I were sewing sleeves into an armhole.  Although it was  a little more difficult without a basting stitch though I am sure that you could baste it first and it would be a lot easier.  I am impatient and just winged it.

For the pant I was a little more intimidated to sew these without a pattern, but I was too far in at this point to back out.  Plus, I am pretty sure that McCalls does not have a pattern for the project that I was making.  So I just went at it like a tailor and figured it out.

I figured out the circumference of my minion divided it in half, and added a little for seam allowance.  I cut 2 pieces of the blue fleece to the dimensions that I figured out.

The nice thing about foam is that the fleece sticks to it so it made it a lot easier to eyeball my cuts.
So I stuck the two pieces of fabric to the foam with the seam in the middle.  I put the kid into the costume so that I could make sure that the crotch would work out and to pin up the legs and to check for length.  After I pinned everything up and left the back partially open (for costume entrance) I sewed up the pants.  It worked really well...surprisingly!

Then I glued the pants to the foam top.  I made a little overall flap out of a rectangle of fleece.  I cut out the black and white Gru emblem out of  felt and glued that on the front of the overalls.  Then I cut out 1 inch strips to be straps of the overalls and glued those on as well.

The picture above shows the next step already done, I trimmed out the eye hole.  I cut long strips of black fleece and lined the opening.  I also glued on strips to make the strap of the eye goggles.

Now all you have to do is add velcro to the back opening.  Then just glue on the hair.  Remember how my points wouldn't stay perfectly together?  Well I used the gap to glue the hair into.

That is my pipe cleaners laying by the gap before I glued them in.

I have two done, and the third is half way.  I will finish it up in no time, seeing as I have already made two I pretty much know the steps now.  I will post some pictures of all three of my minions on Halloween!

In the movie the Minions are all different, so I was not too concerned with them being exactly alike.

I can tell you that my boys love these costumes!!  And who do they think is the coolest mom ever?

This girl right here!!  What is better than that?  Nothing!!  Totally worth the hours, and the 53 hot glue gun burns!
If you have any questions, or if I left something out feel free to leave me a comment and I will try and answer them.
If this is your first time here, Thanks a bunch for coming!!  Feel free to leave me a comment, I have my Minions read them to me :).

Sunny

I linked to:

31 Days to a Better Me day 27

We are almost there people!!  Wahoo!

Anyhow, todays topic is near and dear to me.  I want to talk about reduce, reuse, recycle.   I am practically a hippie when it comes recycling, and reducing (as in not wasting), however sometimes the reusing is  a little harder for me. 

When I look at a used soup can, I don't automatically think about awesome path lanterns.

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Okay, so I really just throw it in the recycle bag and move on.  But maybe I should spend more time thinking about what I can reuse otherwise discarded items for.  I am cheap and reusing items that I have already paid for seems to fit the bill.

Look at some of the other cute things that I found while out looking for inspiration.

                                                                       salvagedgrace.com
Those are old light bulbs...so cute.

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You know because everyone has stacks of burlap coffee bags laying around the house!

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That light is made of recycled paper, maybe not for my house but still cute!

There is so much inspiration out there, there is really no reason not to reuse.  Well, other than laziness/business which may also be my problem.

I think that reusing will make me a better person!

If this is your first time here, Hey thanks for looking!!  Feel free to leave me a comment, especially if you have the low down on some great recycle/reuse projects.  Also go an check out salvagedgrace.com  that girl has some great ideas on how to reuse!

Sunny

31 Days to a Better Me day 26

Today I want to talk about something that I have struggled with maybe all of my life.  It is diligence. 
I find that I make goals to do things and then I get side tracked by one thing or another.

I want to remember to be diligent in a few areas.  I should be more diligent in my faith.  I want to be a more diligent friend/ family.  I really want to be more diligent with my children, saying what I mean and meaning what I say. 

I really have been talking about this the whole month in a way, but those have been goals.  I feel like diligence is more of a life style change. 

I think that if I learn how to be more diligent, I will be a better me!

Spent the day at the pumpkin patch with my youngest, this is the kind of cuteness that I must deal with on a daily basis.

Since there really isn't an image that deals with diligence, I thought that I would show you my baby!!

If this is your first time here, Thanks for reading!  Feel free to leave a comment, I am diligent about reading them!

Sunny