A Little Vinyl Face Lift!

I love vinyl and I am lucky enough to have an amazing friend who has a fantastic vinyl business and makes me everything I need!
(Love you Marni!) 

Some areas of my house needed a little face lift for fall so here is what I did!

Love love love it! Thank again Marni! 
Everyone make sure you click the button above & check out her blog/website, she's amazing!

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9 comments | Posted in: Vinyl

Tomato Soup Cake...Just Trust Me!

Tomato Soup Cake

  

Nearing the holidays I always crave this delicious family recipe! I know, I know it's sounds border line disgusting; tomato soup is for dipping grilled cheese in not for making cake, but you have to trust me it's sooo good! And the best part is it's super easy and you probably have all the ingredients waiting in your pantry!

Ingredients:

1 Can Tomato Soup

3 Tbsp Shorting (I use butter flavored)

1 Egg

-

1.5 Cups Flour

1 Cup Sugar
1 Tsp Baking Soda

1 Tsp Cinnamon

1/2 Tsp Ground Cloves
Pinch of Salt
-
1/2 Cup Raisins

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Mix wet and dry ingredients separately and then add wet mixture to dry.
Mix well then add raisins.
Pour batter into a greased and floured square cake pan.
Bake 50 minutes. (Bake time may vary oven to oven)

Enjoy!

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3 comments | Posted in: Recipes

The Great Wall Challange Link Up!

To all my organized crafters I need your help! You may remember this post:

New Craft Room Adventures: Part One

Well I am sad/happy to report there will not be a Part Two! Well not really anyway. My husband recently got a new job for which he will be working primarily from home (hooray) with some traveling. BUT he is taking back the office! He needs 100% of the room to set up his new desk/computers etc. So it's back up to to the guest bedroom for me! But this time I will not have a table. I really want to keep the guest room a guest room and the closet is full of my photography equipment soooo I'm getting one wall! One wall for shelves to organize all my craft stuff. It has to be esthetically pleasing and orderly as to not scare guests away from the room or give them nightmares at night! I need to be able to quickly get and put back items I will be taking out to work on in the dining room. That's where you come in! If you have a great wall of organization to share with me and inspire me please link up so I can come check it out! I appreciate all your crafty organization help! I should also mention I will not be using the shelves shown here, those will be staying in the office so I'll be buying all new shelves/bins/baskets whatever I need so if you have a great product to recommend that'd be awesome too! P.S. I have one week to complete this transformation! Yikes!

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3 comments | Posted in: Link Parties,Random Fun Stuff

This weekend I took a much needed TIME OUT!

It's true, this weekend I was blessed to attend

and what an incredible opportunity.

After missing the Friday night portion due to this excruciating low back pain I've been having I admit I was feeling less than motivated to go Saturday. But I knew I'd be spending the day with my awesome friends and being the social bee I am didn't want to miss out on that. We arrived a few minutes late (probably because of the length of time it too me to actually get into my friends car with said back issues). Anyway we arrived a few minutes late and I felt like I was walking into a book fair. Seriously? My "less than motivated" attitude turned to slight disgust. Ok so the reason I am here is to listen to all these women push the sale of their books which apparently I can purchase right here right now today! Annoying. To make matters worse because we were a few minutes late our group of 6 was split up to fill the few open seats that remained and I thought, "Well so much for hanging out with my friends today - stupid back pain" I was however lucky enough to sit with another whole row of wonderful ladies from my ward who had an extra seat three rows from the back of the room. I realized just how grateful I was for that when only a few minutes in my back was telling me there was no way in the world I was going to be able to sit though this thing all day and I had to get up and stand against the back wall in an attempt to alleviate as much pain as possible. By the first 20 minute break I was texting the hubs that he would most likely have to come pick me up but that since I didn't even get to sit with the girls I came with I wanted to at least make it through the lunch break as we all had plans to eat at a fun new restaurant.

Then things started to change. During the 20 minute break my large crowd claustrophobia began to set in and I had to walk a little faster than I had been while babying this sore back and it seemed to stretch it out a bit in a good way. When I sat back down in my seat I was able to cross my legs and contort my upper body just right so that the pain wasn't impossible and I was actually able to listen and *hear* Brad Wilcox's talk. I didn't realize until he was done that I had sat through the whole thing. And then Mariama Kallon came on stage. I had read her bio in the program and knew for me this would be the highlight of the day. (and therefore I could leave after lunch with my friends and cry to my husband about my sore back for the rest of the day.)

Mariama Kallon

But like I said, with Brad Wilcox's talk things began to change, once Mariama started to talk things took a full 180! Her incredible story pulled me in so deep you could have been breaking my back bone by bone and I don't think I would have noticed. The 35 minutes flew by in a blur of tears, laughter and admiration for this incredible daughter of God. I was one of the first to stand in offering a standing ovation and it wasn't until I was on my feet that I thought, "How did I get standing so fast, doesn't my back hurt?" It didn't matter. I quickly rushed to the little book fair area I had so begrudgingly passed by earlier and bought her DVD.

Delivered by Hope

The lunch break followed Mariama's talk and I enjoyed a nice lunch with my friends. But unlike my desire to leave that morning I was itching to get back to that conference room, sit in that uncomfortable chair and continue to inspired and uplifted. I wish I could say my back had been magically healed but that wasn't the case. It just didn't matter anymore. The rest of the afternoon was wonderful and it truly ended too quickly. Once I did arrive home I was eager to watch Mariama's DVD but thankfully had scheduled a therapy session for my back, because once away from the intensity of the spirit...it mattered again...a lot!

Sunday morning while the hubs slept in and Asher played and watched Yo Gabba Gabba (yes he is still obessed but that's a whole other post!) I put Mariama's DVD into my laptop curled up on the couch and began to watch her story again. For those wondering the documentary portion of the DVD is very similar to her TOFW talk with additional interviews and pictures. One of those pictures was of her and my ex-boyfriend's sister as missionaries at Temple Square. I couldn't believe it and quickly sent off an email to Caraleen.

-When I started dating my ex, Mike, Caraleen was on her mission and it was now Christmas time. She found out on her phone call home that her little brother was dating a non member and actually receive permission from her president to call me and talk to me about the church. I had a lot of Mormon friends but everyone kinda kept it to themselves, even Mike. I had been invited to dances etc and I think even been to church before because of a Saturday sleepover, but Caraleen was inspired and called me that day. She bore her testimony, asked me some questions and invited me to receive a Book of Mormon and learn from the Missionaries. I accepted and started reading the Book of Mormon online minutes after the phone call.-

In my email to Caraleen today I mentioned I saw the picture of her and Mariama on the DVD and thanked her for calling me that day. She wrote me a very nice reply and included some fun info from her time as Mariama's companion. Here is an exert from the email about Mariama:

"I am so glad you were able to see Mariama at time out for women. She is amazing!! The last month of my mission she came to temple square and I had the privilege of being her companion/trainer. She taught me so much. Every day she would wake up before me and iron my clothes or shine my shoes or try and do some sort of service for me. I told her she didn't have to do that and she would just smile and say it was her way of saying thank you to me for teaching her how to be a missionary. She was always so positive and grateful for everything. When she found out she was coming to temple square she crossed stitched a fan for Sister Hinckley and a handkerchief for Pres.Hinckley so that she would have a gift for them. She didn't have a real needle so she used a small stick to do it. It was amazing. Her first day on Temple Square we were walking home to our apartment so she could unpack and my pager went off. It was my mission president asking us to turn around and come back to temple square because the ambassador of Ghana was there and he wanted Mariama to take him on a tour. The church had been trying to get a temple built there but were having some opposition. After Mariama gave the ambassador a tour he was so touched by her testimony and he said he would do everything in his power to help get the temple built in Ghana. A year later the ground breaking began for the temple there. I could go on and on about Mariama. She is truly amazing."

After receiving Carleen's email and doing some quick math and thinking about dates and I am pretty sure Mariama was Caraleen's companion during the time she was inspired to call me. I know this experience was meant for me and I am so grateful for the opportunity I received to hear Mariama speak and the chain reaction that followed. I am truly blessed. If you have had the pleasure to hear Mariama speak, buy her DVD and listen again. If you haven't heard her, find out where she is speaking and try to go and if that's not possible buy her DVD. Her complete TOFW talk is on the DVD as well as her Documentary. Her story will change your life.

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1 comment | Posted in: Random Fun Stuff,Relief Society

I'm BBAAAAAACCKKK!

Well hello! I know you all must have thought I dropped of the face of the earth, but I am still alive!! Alive and kicking...well the little the little wiggler inside my belly sure is kicking!

That's right! I'm PREGNANT! 

18 Weeks and we just found out today it's another boy!

My vacay from blogging was mainly due to extreme morning sickness which seems to be starting to pass, and well a complete lack of motivation and energy! And although I am starting to feel much better sickness and energy wise my back is messed. Like a complete disaster, I can hardly carry Asher and today, I can hardly walk. Arg. I am hoping a mix of Ibuprofen, Cranial Sacral Therapy and Massage Therapy will help.  (Did you know you can take Ibuprofen till you're 28 weeks? I didn't and man it would have come in useful cause Tylenol seriously does nothing for me. Thank goodness I went to my Dr. today.) If any of you have experience severe low back pain during pregnancy and found things that help please share the knowledge! I need all the help I can get!

ANYWAY That's what's been going on with me the last 18 weeks! I have a few projects on my to do list that I am hoping I'll be able to do and share with you guys soon. And thank you to all my fellow blogger for all the great posts lately! I am getting so inspired by all of you this fall season! I love it!

 I have done a little card making over the past few weeks so I'll share some of my favorites with ya!

(Disclaimer: pics were taken with my camera phone! Sorry - lazy!)

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10 comments | Posted in: Cards,Random Fun Stuff