Seventh Day Slumber!

So this past week, on Tuesday, we went to go see Seventh Day Slumber at Kemah! KSBJ put on a concert to kick-off a new radio station of more rocking Christian music (I'm excited) that will come I think this August or fall.

Joey and I took 2 girls from the youth group and his sister.

It was a lot of fun!

Only complaint: IT WAS SOO HOT!!

We stood in the front(ish) in the crowd and that made it hotter...thankfully God provided a breeze that would blow every once and a while that felt like AC :)

I failed at taking good pictures, but I did take a few.

If you don't know who Seventh Day Slumber is, here's one of their songs:
"Surrender"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VuTdeMng_co

They are a  rockin' Christian band. :)

They sing:
Surrender
From the Inside Out
and others

I had to make the picture bigger, otherwise it was hard to see and you can't really see the bass player on the right. In the original pic I only got half of him! Poor guy!
P.S. Check out the boy jamming on the playground slide roof :D (to the left) It was awesome!

The lead singer told us his testimony, it was amazing! It's so amazing to hear what God can do!

He grew up in a house where his dad abused his mom, he became addicted to cocaine by age 14, became a 4 time convicted felon by the age of 22 and tried to commit suicide twice. The second time he took a lethal dose of cocaine, his mother came home early and she walked in on him as his heart stopped and called the ambulance. It was in the ambulance that he gave his life to God.
You can listen to all of the story here:
http://www.tangle.com/view_video?viewkey=7839d1baac6aea8357e7
(The volume is kinda low, might just be my laptop though)

It is amazing! One thing I love about this band is the lead singer and his tattoos. It shows that even though someone may have tattoos and look "rough", they can be a person who's heart is after God! He is the one who really matters and it is your heart that He really looks at.

It was a great time :)

I Love Thrifting!

I have been thrift shopping a lot lately it seems! I promise these trips have been spread out!

I checked out a place that was recommended to me by T. Bird at Nestled in Rosenberg.

Here is what I found:

I only paid $5 for all this!

- Apothecary Jar: $5

-Plates: Free!

- Plaque: Free!

One of the things I loved about this shop is they had a basket marked free! How awesome! So many times places will hang on to things...well these ladies knew when to let things go!

Here's what's on the plate: it's one of those anniversary plates...I would guess. My grandparents live in Iowa plus I thought these were pretty so I couldn't pass up the FREE price :)

No, your not crazy, they are the exact same plates, just in different colors. I would hate to see them get thrown away or out so I took both! I'm thinking I will start a wall in our formal dining with church plates in blues and reds :) It's different and interesting!

I also got this. It was in the free basket as well :) I figured I will spray paint it and paint something cute on it. 

When I was checking out one of the older ladies said "Oh, that's Hummel, what a shame that it's chipped". I had no idea what Hummel was or who it was. So I looked it up...apparently some of the pieces can be worth some money. However this one does not have the mark on it to say when it was made and it's very weathered. So my plan is to still paint over it, or try to somehow get the picture off and preserve it or frame it. 

Lastly, I got the apothecary jar:

This was inside. When I got to the register I casually asked the lady if she wanted the decor inside the jar. Poor lady...she looked like I said I hated her! She was like "You don't want it?!" and told me it was a part of the jar, it goes with it. We got over that and I am now a proud owner of a toothpick palm tree with a felt monkey on it., a shell, and lil rocks. We started talking about what I could fill the apothecary jar with. She told me about how she has used old cookie cutters in one (Cute idea!) and how one lady that goes in there a lot had put shells in her's. I told her about my chess pieces I put in my other one and our seller/buyer relationship seemed mended. 

Lesson learned: Even if you have no idea what to do with the stuff inside something you want to buy...just take it. 

Plus:  The monkey has grown on me and I have moved the decor into another jar I have to go with my shells I had in the living room :)

I bought this jar bc:

It matches the one I got at Goodwill perfectly! :) Yay!

Have a great evening! :)

Life with 3 Kitties!

I tried to think of an interesting title for this post. If you have a cat, you know there are really funny moments and then there is when they are just sleeping. :)

I love our kitties! They make our life more interesting! lol

Our Daisy loves to lay on my lap and chew on her paw...yeah, sounds weird! It's something she does when she is calm...I guess it's sucking your thumb cat style? She chews/sucks on the fur between her pads on her front paws. It's cute/strange :) She is the attention-craving middle-child cat.

Yao is my teddy bear :) He lays right next to me at night and I can hold him like a stuffed animal. My poor baby has allergies! It is cute and kind of funny, but then we feel sorry for him! Every once and a while he'll have sneezing fits and will get the sniffles.

Burney loves Yao! He looks up to his big brother! Sometimes Burney will cry for Yao and sometimes Yao does the same for Burney. It's cute :) He's such a good kitty, it's amazing how good he is considering Joey picked him up off of the road! (His story here)


I took some pictures of what's been happening for your enjoyment or for mine later :)

First:

-  Nosy Yao wanted to check out the new antique crate I got, he did this like the day after I got it! He was in it, smelling it and rubbing his cheek on the side. This is on top of our kitchen cabinets! The boy kitties love to go up there!

Second:

                                        

-This happened on Sunday. Yao was eating and Joey and I was about to leave for church. We opened the door to the garage and that somehow scared Yao half to death and he bumped into the food bowl. All those specks are pieces of food. This is not the first time he has done that either! Luckily the water bowl was not that full so it didn't get everywhere like it did one time! lol

Third:

                                        

- Burney and I had a photo shoot today :) He was laying on the bed and I thought he looked cute. 

He was pleased...can you tell? lol

My Wreath!

I have posted a couple of blogs with the wreath I wanted to make and the materials I got for it.

Well I am excited to show you our new wreath!! :D I made it! I am excited how it turned out!

Yay!

I started on it last night. I cut the greenery off the bush part, then I decided to hot glue it "right quick". 

Well I got so far, used the glue sticks that came with my glue gun...opened up the bag I bought of extra sticks and...they didn't fit! Boo!

So I had to wait till after class today to go and get the mini glue gun glue sticks. lol Lesson: check glue gun and  glue gun stick size before leaving Hobby Lobby. 

Back to the photos

                                                          Here's our door before:

What's that in on the door?

It's an UGLY "No Soliciting" sign. 

We didn't put it there, but it does work sometimes :) I've seen a guy walk up and leave. Usually it doesn't(we still get door spam). However I've been too scared to take it off, I don't want our door to get messed up. 

After:

Hmm...the wreath is a little high on the door.

I added some ribbon.

Tied a cute lil bow on top

All finished!

I am so happy with it! :)

I got the idea here in case you want to make one too! It's simple! 

Some Neat Things

Ok, I have so many pictures I want to share. Those of the re-loved Taters box, my antique finds from this past Friday, some awesome things my grandma gave me.

So get ready! Lots of pictures coming your way!!

This is the Taters box. My grandpa Hammers(my dad's dad) made this. I have been told it was from the last walnut tree on his farm. The box was at dad's and it needed some Old English love!

So I gave it a good wipe down, and cleaned the inside too

TA-DA!!

I love it! :) 

My family has had it since I was little, so I am happy to have it in our house!

Next: My antique finds!

My mom and I went last Friday to Red Queen's Attic. It's in downtown Rosenberg(right where the old theater is, just a few shops down). I got the tip-off from this awesome blogger. I had no idea about it beforehand! 

Anyways, I LOVE that place!! There are SO many things there, it's a 2 story antique place! Score!

Here's my finds:

A cool old wooden crate! Mine for $20! :) 

Sorry I was so excited about it that I put it up on my cabinets before I took a picture!

Later I'm going to get some greenery to put in it. 

I also found this:

A blue Ball Ideal Mason Jar! :)

Plus it's full of old buttons! 

I wanted a blue mason jar and a bunch of old buttons!

Ta-Da! Mine for $8, which I thought was great!

Then Friday evening my mom and grandma came over, I showed my grandma the blue mason jar and told her  how pretty I thought they were. Well turns out she has some and offered to give me some! :D

Yay!! I love shopping at my grandma's! When she has stuff she doesn't want I go over and go through it to see if I could use it! I've gotten some great pyrex 9x11 dishes and neat "vintage" things from her! What a blessing!

So last night, I went over to her house and she gave me these:

Beautiful!!

(The jar on the right is from Avon!)

This is the mug in the middle.

It says "Jack in the Box Liberty Mug"

I believe it's from the 70's!

Then the big Ball Ideal Jar on the Left is a Bicentennial Jar! From 1976!

Here is my happy lil collection

LOVE!

It's on my mantle right now! 

I am so happy with them!

  

Thanks granny! :) 

She also has a milk glass pot she is going to give me, since she doesn't use/want it. 

That's all the pictures of my vintage stuff I have gotten recently! 

Have a great day! Enjoy the sunshine!

Cheap Finds!

 Have you ever been to a Goodwill store? No? Well if you want/need some home decor items, you might want to give Goodwill a chance. I have found some really good things at Goodwill lately! I discovered a big Goodwill store near Joey's work and I've visited it twice now.

1st Trip:

- I have been wanting one of those ducks for SO long! They had some like it at Target, but they were pretty pricey. I didn't find any on clearance either. So when I ran across this guy for $1.99, I scooped him up! 

To my surprise I saw this on him:

He was from Family Dollar! Plus originally $5!!

Wow! He doesn't look like he's from Family Dollar! 

So his new home is by our fireplace :)

- I also got that CUTE apothecary jar!! That was $1.99, but on 30% off sale, so I paid $1.39 for it!! SCORE! I have seen these at Hobby Lobby and they are definitely more than that!

The jar got filled with some chess pieces and placed in between the games I have out on our "formal table".

 I love how it looks! Best $1.39 spent, plus I love how versatile it is!

- Last the old milk jar. I doubt it is a real old one, but you never know. Joey used to have one like it that he kept his change in, but it broke. I thought his jar was so neat, so when I saw this one I scooped it up too! :) Only .99!

My second trip was not as exciting, I almost bought some candlesticks and mirror, but I am happy I didn't now. 

I just got this:

                                        

- It was $1.99 and not on the 30% off sale, but I saw it and I was reminded that I have a vase just that color that we got from Joey's G-ma. 

So I brought it home.

Sure enough, they match! :) Yay! Now I can display them together!

I hope you enjoyed reading about my goodwill adventures! I love being able to find new pieces for our house without breaking the budget! :)

Gotta Love Hobby Lobby!

So since I have gotten a lil extra money because of my birthday I've been going to Hobby Lobby quite a bit :)

First of all since I've been wanting to get some craft stuff and was waiting for my birthday.
Second of all because they have/had such good clearance!!

So about a two weeks ago, I go in to Hobby Lobby to look around at things I can get to make some things. I scope the clearance and other things. I pick up a cute bird candle holder that's on sale....and CUT my finger! Not bad, but it did bleed a little. I put hand sanitizer on it and keep going. I'm walking around a lil more and ram my lil toe into the metal wheel, I was walking too close to the cart. I hate it when that happens!! I guess it's because I'm short, so I run my feet into the cart more. So despite those injuries, I had a good trip!

I got this:

The wreath, greenery, hot glue gun, and sticks are to make the wreath I posted about. 

Then  I got this:

YAY!! I've been wanting to get some since I've seen SO many neat projects with it. I have already fixed my "Clean/Dirty" magnet that's for the dishwasher. 

 I am so excited to make my wreath, but also nervous, so I haven't started yet. lol

I also got some really cute birds on clearance from Hobby Lobby :) I will share those with you later, since they are getting makeovers :) One I spray painted yellow, the yellow I had left over from the lima beans, but it turned out ugly...so it's going to get primed and repainted silver. 

These Are a Few of My Favorite...Sites

I was just thinking I wanted to share with you some of my favorite websites. Some of you may read this and wonder where I get these ideas/advice/deals, what websites/blogs do I check. Here they are:

Coupons/Deal Websites:

- Money Saving Mom - just a little bit of everything! Deals, coupons, Once a Month Cooking, Homemaking Tips and more!

- Mojo Savings  - has great freebies listed.

- Hip 2 Save - I love her silly personality! She uploads videos every once in a while and they just make me laugh :)

- She Saved - has great giveaways and has good posts about different websites with the best deals.


Homemaker/Thrifty Living/Helpful House Tips:

- Life As Mom- Great for Once a Month Cooking Tips and I love her advice and new series: "14 Ways to Be More Joyful".

- Home Ec 101- Has great advice on many problems around the house (stinky garbage disposal, spills, etc.) and she has recipes too!

- Coupon Teacher - Has great Thrifty Thursday posts! Plus she has some coupon deals and she shows her loot after shopping :)

Recipes Sites:

- Good Cheap Eats - Has great cheap recipes and helpful tips

- The Pioneer Woman- She gives away a Kitchen Aid Mixer almost every week, thousands enter, but I am still hopeful one day it might be me :) Plus she has helpful tips and yummy looking recipes!


Craft Blogs:

- Make it and Love it - Has great sewing tutorials and cake making tutorials.

- House of the Hepworths - She has great makeovers on thrift store stuff and she includes tutorials! :)

- Remodelaholic- She has great remodels of furniture and her house. I also like that once a week others link up their thrifty creations or re-dos!

- Nestled in Rosenberg - I love it that we live in the same town. That cute stuff she makes and gets is here where I can make it or get other good finds! She has a lot of cute thrift and antique finds.

- The Graphics Fairy - this one is awesome bc she has SO many CUTE vintage graphics for you to print...yep you read that right...print!


That is all! That's what's in my bookmarks! I hope you find this list helpful!

Upcoming Crafts

I see some many neat things on craft blogs! I wanted to share some of the ideas I want to eventually do! :)
You can click on the blog names and it will take you to the project

Here's the first- I actually have all the supplies to make this:

From All Thingz Related
This photo is one of her tutorial photos. This is made up of a grapevine wreath and then some fake boxwood plants from Hobby Lobby. Just cut apart the bush/plant and hot glue. Pretty simple! :) This will be a fun project for me later in the week once my final (on Wed.) is over with.


Another project I really like:

Little Apartment on the Prairie features a mason jar turned into a soap dispenser!
- You can use one of those really cute blue antique Ball Mason Jars or just use one that you like the shape (like the one above). On her blog, she even shows how to make it look like the antique blue jars! Cool! :D
 - I am excited about this one however I still need to find some neat jars!



These are SO cute and CHEAP to make!! Welcome to Starshine Chic made these using thrift store cheap crystal vases and craft paint! :) I would love to make these, but I'm so indecisive of what color and where to put these if I made them.


I LOVE these!! These are tea towels!! Over at Chronicles of an Accidental City Girl, she found this project in DIY magazine!
- I am so going to do this! I just have to find some cute tea towels! Our kitchen is pretty...um...eclectic. Whatever I like is in there. Mostly it was contemporary in our apartment, then more and more it is going a lil country- but not in a rooster theme. No offense, I like rooster decor, some of it. However I have seen it overdone! We have some old cool kitchen stuff from Joey's G-ma on top of the cabinets and I just added my family's "taterbox". I'll show you that in a lil while. :) So it is going to be kinda hard to find tea towels, or at least I think it will be. Another thing is we have another big window in our kitchen, so I would need them to coordinate. But eventually- this project will be done at our house.


Is it sad that I really have to go search for projects to share with you?! I see so many I like, but most are furniture re-dos or I just don't bookmark it.


I do want to share a blog with you that I found while surfing the web when Joey was in the hospital.
http://www.nestledinrosenberg.com/  - Nestled in Rosenberg
- Why do I love this blog? Well bc that Rosenberg is Rosenberg, TEXAS!! Yes!

I finally found a crafty/thrifty blogger from my town!! How cool! I was looking through her posts and pictures, not thinking it was our town. I was hoping, but I figured it wasn't. Until I saw this:


That's the old theater in downtown (old) Rosenberg! :D I was so excited that I emailed her just to say thanks! She finds the cutest things thrift-ing and antqiue-ing! I had no idea there were such good things to be found in my own town! I am so excited! No more going to Stafford! yay!

That's all for now! :D Have a Happy 4th of July! :)