This & That!

Recently saw an adorable canvas print with a bird in a tree.  It was the right price, but too large to take on a place ride home.  I made one myself at home.  Found a tree online, printed it out and added a circut bird.

 Painted a Coffeemat creamer white and added a face to make a cute little snowman!

 Yarn balls...yarn wrapped around styrofoam balls.

 Purchased these plastic plates last Spring...recently added Cricut tea pot & cup with the cricut. 

A year ago I bought this jar for $10.  I had M&Ms in white, red & green in there for a year.  Too many people wanted to eat my decorations - so I found these marbles & beads at Michael's in the Christmas Clearance.  No one will want to eat these anymore and I have year-round cuteness.

This was an ornament the little ones made on Christmas Eve in the nursery.  It's a plastic bulb, filled with pom poms and a Cricut Baby Jesus on the outside.  It's so adorable I needed to make one for myself.

My own "Ikea Hack"

We recently hung our tv over the fireplace and were finally able to get rid of our dumb tv stand.  We gave that to a friend and headed off to Ikea on their sale day - we got 2 Expedit 4x cubes for $20 each to hold our dvds.  In order to make room so we could use them for other storage, I needed to figure out a way to use the space wisely.  Last week Target had Little Cuties on sale and most cashiers had the cardboard boxes in their trashes.  I asked 2 cashiers for the boxes and they gave me 10+.  I used 2 cartons before cube, stacked on top of each other.  I painted the top one black, to blend in with the shelf.

Window to my Printers Tray!

For Christmas I received a printers tray! Woo Hoo!  For years I've been collecting little items to one day store & display in my very own printers tray.

Next to that, we hung my new window.  My mom was getting rid of 2 long old windows and I traded one for a smaller one to a friend last month.  

Now it displays photos taken by my brother and myself...and 3 Cricut trees.

Candle to Coffee

At our cousins house Christmas Day and I noticed a cute canister with a candle in it.  I asked K what she was going to do with the canister, she was going to toss it...so it came home with me! :)

I burned the candle until it was easy to remove all of the wax.  Washed it out and ideas started formulating on how I could use it......

An idea came to mind and my good old friend, Cricut, came out to play!

Now my Via coffee packets have a cute new home on the stove top!

Christmas 2011 Decorations

 Entryway Shelf

 Dining room

 Tree

Living room

Kitchen counter & shelf

Nativity Candles made with my Cricut

Merry Christmas 2011 & Happy New Year 2012

Merry Christmas 2011 & Happy New Year 2012

We started out 2011 on a trip to Disney World with part of Christine’s family.  The last night in Disney Christine was taken by ambulance to the hospital in severe pain. After 4 hours in the ER, the diagnosis was kidney stones.  We guess all the jostling from the Rockin’ Roller Coaster bounced a sharp little stone out of her kidney.  Thankfully the pain meds allowed her to sit on the plane comfortably the next day, but also caused her to be nauseous and use 3 airplane sick bags.  Yuck!

The rest of our year has been busy with church activities.  We had another busy summer with kid’s camp and vacation Bible school.  Christine keeps busy with lots of crafts, enjoying turning Goodwill & garage sale finds into new treasures.  Michael has been busy working multiple part-time and temp jobs this year.  In October he started school, going for a one-year Accounting certificate.  As we reach the 2-year mark of his unemployment, we got the news that in January he starts a permanent part-time job at church as the maintenance/janitor.  He’ll also continue a part-time evening job through community ed, while attending school.   When Michael isn’t running all over, he’s done some great work on our house, updating and painting a few things.  He’s currently helping with childcare a couple mornings a month and coaching a Bible quiz team at church too.

Christine became licensed as a pastor this summer and has 8 classes to take in the next year for her ministry degree.  She loves working with the kids and planning all the awesome outreach events.  Christine also spent a week in northern MN on a mini-mission trip with the Joni & Friends organization for their Family Retreat. 

Labor day weekend Christine’s 103-year-old-grandma Clara passed away.  We had a great service for her in Glenwood, MN and buried her at Fort Snelling with Grandpa Sigurd.  She lived a long, amazing life and we’re so happy she’s in Heaven with Jesus.

We look forward to a great 2012.  Christine will perform her first wedding, marrying her brother Steven and her friend Kenyari in April.

We hope this year ahead is filled with all the blessings you can hold!

Blessings,

Michael & Christine