10 Things THURSDAY: Reusing Christmas Cards!

That's right, you're getting a BONUS edition of 10 Things Tuesday, because a friend of mine requested something that I thought was very timely: needing a little crafty inspiration to know what to do with all those Christmas cards (or birthday, or any greeting card of any kind)?  Read on!

1. The classic idea is turn those cards into small gift boxes! (Or baskets...)

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2. Turn them into bookmarks or gift tags!

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3. Reuse as post cards...just cut off the front, pretty part (assuming the inside is blank), round off the corners, and write your message!

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4. Make pretty journals, with lots of different papers and the greeting cards!  (I think this would be a fun way to get an art journal started, all your artsy folk out there!)

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5. Turn them into four-sided luminaries!  This would be especially sweet for nativity-themed cards, I think.

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6. Make paper ornaments!  How fun would it be to have an ornament each year from the cards you got from that year? 

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7. Turn those cards into puzzles for the kiddos in your family!

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8. Make popsicle stick puppets with the images on them! I bet this could be a lot of fun for kids...and you can turn a shoebox into a puppet theater for them!

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9. Cut out the images and use for collages/mosaics/other artwork.  This could be fun to do with kids, but I think it'd be just as fun for grown-ups, too!  :) I have a few labeled sheet protectors in a binder filled with small images from cards and magazines, in fact, just to use for collages and other artwork.  I highly recommend this!

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10. Turn them into a holiday wreath for next year! (This image is great, but it would be even better with some big ribbon to hang it...maybe even a bow?)

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BONUS IDEAS:
Check out these and LOTS of other fun decorations (all with instructions and made from old Christmas cards) from Better Homes and Gardens!

Hope this inspires you as much as it does me!  Happy crafting, and happy holidays!

10 Things Tuesday: Random Things, Part 2!

I have found so many fun things that didn't quite fit anywhere that I thought I'd go ahead and make another miscellaneous post!  Take a look at the fun things you can do to reuse items around the house!

10.  I know I already posted a fun plastic bottle bowling set, but these little pins are made from the milk containers at fast food restaurants--how cute!

 9. Bread tag monsters!  You can use these guys to label wires or whatever!

 8.  Advent calendars!  You can use a cookie cutter and pop tops, or muffin tins!

 7.  What about putting those game pieces to use as jewelry, magnets, keychains, and more?

 6.  Turn your old pillowcases into new, no-sew skirts!  Just cut the top (NOT the hem) down to the right length, and put a bit of elastic in the top...awesome!

 5.  How about turning your old, worn-out shoes into planters?

 4.  Scrabble is a favorite game around here--but you could make a fun play keyboard for your kiddos, or a nice notepad for YOU!

 3.  Zipper flowers!  There are a million tutorials out there, but why not?  These are very pretty!

 2.  When your markers dry out and you just want to throw them away, why not make them a top instead?  I think this would be fun even if they WEREN'T dry--put some paper beneath it and see what patterns the swirly top makes!

1. How about turning your extra ribbon into a pretty topiary?  In THIS TUTORIAL, she actually made everything coordinate, but it could be fun for all your scraps, too!

Happy {green} crafting!

Puppies

Just some fun phone pics of our dogs being dogs.  :)

Voodoo and Obsidian LOVE our new place...especially Voodoo.  And she loves the top of the couch now.

Sometimes they are so much alike, which is surprising because they are two very different mutts of very different breeds.  But Voodoo is a true little sister to Obi, always wanting to sit where she is and do what she's doing:

And they both love to cuddle.  And snuggle up in warm blankets.  They're prissy little girl dogs, but we love them, anyway!  :)

No-Machine Ice Cream!

I love coldstone because you can add all sorts of mix-ins.
I ask every year for an ice cream maker, but no one has enough money to get one.  And that's okay.  Because now there's a cheap, easy, egg-free way to make homemade ice cream WITHOUT A MACHINE!

(Sorry for the bad picture, my phone's camera isn't that great.)

(I got the recipe from HERE, although I didn't have enough heavy cream to whip so I instead added an 8-oz carton of cool whip.  Fewer calories, and it tasted awfully good just the same!)  I'm sure the cream would be even better, but even with the cool whip, it had a great texture and very sweet flavor.

You just add the flavors and toppings you want to a can of sweetened condensed milk, then fold in the whipped cream (carton of cool whip or a pint of heavy cream that you whip yourself).  Freeze in a tupperware container for a few hours, and voila!  I made a pumpkin version to use up some leftover canned pumpkin I had, and it was SOOOOOOO good.  Way better than storebought, even.  :)  We're going to make a mint cookies and cream for some guests tomorrow.  Enjoy!

New Year's Resolutions?

Are you a fan of these or not?  I make them every year, even though I most likely will not look at them after January, because it gives me something to look forward to and a focus for my life, at least for a while.  I've been thinking about what I want out of 2012 all week...I guess my mind is just focused on the future at the moment. 

In 2012, I want to recertify in CPR/First Aid and then get a real, grown-up teaching job.  (And sub in the meantime.)  I'm so, so, so very sick of sitting at home, even doing good things with my time.  I've applied to be a sub in the two most local school districts but there's a month-long processing time and I can't take it anymore!  :)  I miss teaching and working with kids and I just might actually explode if I don't find something soon to occupy my time in a way that actually MEANS something and CONTRIBUTES to the world.  And we could certainly use the extra income.

I also want to do Project 365.  I already have all 52 weeks' digiscrapping layouts made up, so all I have to do is take a photo each day and plop it into the layout using my image editing software.  Then we'll print it off at the end of the year.  Easy, right?  I can't wait to have this book in our ever-growing collection of photo memories.  If you want to do this, too, I can privately send you my quick pages.  I can even direct you to free software to use if you don't want to pay for Photoshop.  :)  Just leave your email in the comments section and I'll do that.

And I'd love to have the in-laws visit and actually show them a good time!  :)  Rest their worries about our lives and show them we have plenty of good things to do here, that I can in fact keep a clean home and feed Paul properly, and that we really are working towards a big move in the near future to Chicago for Paul to finish his degree and me to get my dream job.
Those are the three things I know for SURE.  Everything else is very much up in the air at the moment.  I imagine that 2012 will find us still here in West Lafayette, probably still in this apartment since we love it so much.  I'm sure my struggle to healthier living will have as many forward and backward movements as 2011 has.  I'd love to have a few personal prayers answered, but that's not really up to me. :)  I'd love to focus on dating my husband more...I've got lots of ideas but haven't put most of them into practice yet.  And I'd love to actually complete several projects found via pinterest, start up my craft club, etc...but nothing set in stone.  Yet.

So that's where I'm at right now.  Looks like 2012 will be a busy one!  :)

What about you?  What do you want for yourself and your family in the upcoming year? 

10 Things Tuesday: Tin Cans!

You know those tin cans that food and such come in?  Especially if you use a safety can opener (the kind that makes it open nicely), you can reuse them around the house.  Did you KNOW how fun those can be to repurpose?  There are so many options...take a look!

10.  Light!  Make a candle or lantern with these cans...and decorate however you want!

 9. How about this cool message center/bulletin board?  Put a magnet on the back of that can and voila!  It attaches to your cookie sheet!

 8. Use balloons, rubber bands, and beans to make cheap musical instruments for your kids--a combination bongo and shaker!

 7. An organizer or pencil cup!  Put some fun paper around each can and you'll have a pretty and functional organizer!

 6. What about those old school tin can phones?  Or fun stilts (we called them moon boots, even though that's technically not accurate...)  Reintroduce your kids to the toys of the past with these easy crafts!

 5.  NotSoIdleHands made this cute gift for friends...you cut the BOTTOM and use the contents inside, then clean it out and decorate it pretty, glueing the bottom back on so your recipients can pop open the top!

 4.  Prettify them!  Get creative!

 3.  Use your cans and a few nuts/bolts/small toys to have a robot making party!

 2.  If you want to get serious about it, THIS WEBSITE actually shows off several different kinds of lids for those cans!  I wonder if you could fit normal lids onto the cans so you don't have to make them yourself, or where to buy them?  But they look awesome!  Wahoo! 

 1. How about a cute toy train?  :)

Well, that's it for this week.  Happy crafting!

Strange things are happening...

First of all, let me say WELCOME to my blog!  Somehow, probably thanks to the marvelous Pinterest, I now have double the followers I had a month ago, and none of you newbies do I know personally...so welcome to my family blog, and thanks for taking the time to follow and comment and all that jazz.  I'm in the middle of reorganizing my priorities and weaning myself off many of these internet wonders, so I'm sorry now if you get bored or if you feel ignored.  It's not on purpose.  I'm sure you're a lovely person.  :)

I had a strange thought today.  I wonder what it would be like to be one of those people who actually lives the life they planned for themselves.  I mean, of course we all have a hiccup or two along our respective roads, but I seem to live in a realm where "if you want to make God laugh, make plans."  Nothing--schooling, careers, family, health, hobbies, or otherwise--has gone anything remotely resembling according to my plans.  If you had told me as a teenager that I'd be 25 before I got my first kiss, 26 before I got married, or 27 before I graduated with my bachelor's degree (from PURDUE no less!), I'd have laughed in your face outright.  I'd never wait 'til I was that "old" to accomplish such major life goals!  If you had told me I'd struggle with a life-changing hip injury at 22 or infertility and thyroid issues before and during marriage, I never would have believed you.  That it would take me this long to find a job (still looking) with a 3.97 GPA and great work experience/references is so pathetic it's almost laughable.  Sometimes I take a look around at people and even though I know they have their own trials and bumps in the road, I envy their ability to set goals and actually achieve them without a huge mountain to climb along the way.  To say, "Okay, we want to get a job now," and actually do it in the field they studied, or to say, "I think it's time for a baby," and then just make it happen. That very idea completely boggles my mind.  If I have learned nothing else in these last 8-10 years, it's that I have no idea what's going on.

And that's okay.

I'm grateful for the faith I have in a loving Father in Heaven that sustains me along my climbing.  And I'm thankful that even though I have all these ideas about what I want for myself, *HE* knows even better what would make me happy and keep me progressing towards the woman He wants me to be.  I'm learning to be content with His plans for me and to be more flexible in my waiting.  I'm also learning how to wait *productively* and to prioritize even better so that He can work His miracles through me, in my own little sphere.  This doesn't mean I stop setting goals for myself, sometimes heartbreakingly difficult-to-achieve ones at that.  I have just accepted that this is the realm I'm in, at least for now.

It's not such a bad realm to be in.