The Best Gift: A Watch by Jord

Messy Messy Fail - I have found spiders on my clothes, crawling across the table in front of me, however never in my hair until a few days ago!  I did a story on my Instagram sharing my experience - the arachnid literally creeped from the back of my head to the front while I was brushing my teeth - I did let out a little scream!

Tidy Victory - I have successfully sat down and read for 15 minutes two times in the last week - that's two more times than the last two YEARS!  One of my goals this year was to read more, and slowly but surely I am!

Health, Beauty and Wellness Groupons for a Parental Relaxing Experience #Groupon #ad

Messy Messy Fail - Definitely had the cute t-shirt I had on under my sheer LuLaRoe Lindsey inside-out for half of the day yesterday.  I only noticed when I looked down and saw the hem on the outside of the v-neck.  Perhaps no one noticed (da da DAaaaaaaa).......or did they?

Tidy Victory - I am so excited that the new fall TV show lineup is in progress - so many new and exciting series it's hard to know what to pick!  There is simply not enough room on my DVR for all of them - will there be anything to replace Parenthood in my life?  Only time will tell - what are you excited to watch this fall?

Uncommon Gifts for "That Person" from UncommonGoods - A Gift Guide

Messy Messy Fail - After our huge kitchen facelift (a before and after post perhaps?) everything is back to normal with the exception of one thing.  I noticed last week when I was cooking on the front left burner of my glass cooktop stove that everything seemed to be either A) cooking much quicker or B) simply burning.  After a few ruined meals that had to be thrown away from that particular burner, I proceeded with the boil test and sure enough - I was able to boil a pot of water on the "2" setting.  Now I'm trying to figure out if we are within the limits of the warranty still.  In the meantime, only boiling on that burner.

Tidy Victory - Our beyond slow internet has been fixed!  Over the years, the speed of our internet has become so slow and cumbersome until just this last week when it took at least 2 minutes to load a web page, and sometimes they just wouldn't load at all.  A quick call to our provider along with the reminder of the competition's great rates got a service technician to our house within a few days.  Apparently over the years as the phone line has been moved around the house, the old lines were not cut off.  As the internet was passing through all of the old lines, it was slowing the whole process down.  Whatever that man did, it was amazing - my Snap Chat has never loaded so quickly (lovemymmmess)!

Non-Toy Gifts for Little Kids

Messy Messy Fail - It appeared as though the toddler decided to record some extra programing on our DirecTV DVR of his own before we went away for a weekend.  Upon returning, an episode of  American Horror Story Hotel and Fargo was missed due to a full hard drive of Good Morning America, the Rachael Ray Show and Kelly & Michael.  Delete, delete, delete.

Tidy Victory - These last few days I have been a MACHINE getting my Christmas tasks done - Santa Sprinkles for the UPKer's class, teacher gifts, peanut butter fudge for co-workers, cards mailed out, Christmas breakfast and dinner items purchased!  This may truly be the most ready I have ever been for the holidays, and it feels so good!

Santa Sprinkles + Free Printable Tag

Messy Messy Fail - As we began decorating our tree on Thursday evening, I discovered far more than usual broken ornaments.  Is it ironic that the UPKer helped us put them away last year?  I think not.  Not pictured is the glass ball the the toddler smashed on the floor in front of the tree while we were decorating.  I'm warming up my hot glue gun as I type.

Tidy Victory - I participated in my first Twitter party this week, #SnoopGames, and I won something!  I'm not sure what, just waiting patiently for it to arrive in the mail in the next few weeks.  My winning answer listed all the platforms for the new Snoopy's Grand Adventure video game. Woo hoo!

2015 Holiday Ornament Exchange Linky Party

Messy Messy Fail - Because I'm frugal (cheap!), I take the Bath & Body wallflower out of the wall outlet in our bedroom in the morning so I am not wasting the oil making it smell nice during the day while we are at work.  I typically just place it upright in a basket on my husband's nightstand.  I hear "Katie there's a mess in the bedroom"......the wallflower has overturned the wallflower and it has leaked all over the shelf.  The oil even completely REMOVED the varnish from the furniture and made the bottom of the phone charger all sticky and melted.  Nasty warm sugar smelling mess!

Tidy Victory - I had to get the boys out of the house and to daycare on my own this morning - I woke up only 15 minutes earlier than usual and somehow managed to get out of the house THE EARLIEST EVER.  It was shocking.  Let's see if I can do it again on Monday!

2015 Ornament Exchange - Favorite Things Decoupage Ornament

Messy Messy Fail - I have labeled containers in the basement that house all of my decorations for the different holidays.  Sometimes I am good about changing my decorations out, sometimes I'm not. Sometimes I am so bad about putting them away that my poor house cleaner gets fed up with my slackerness and ends up doing it herself.  And then they sit in boxes that she happened to find in our basement (surprise, surprise!) on the floor because I keep forgetting to put them away in their proper container.  At least I don't have to search too hard for my Christmas decorations this year.

Tidy Victory - I've gotten a boat load of Christmas shopping done for the boys with lots of good deals, including a HUGE discount from Toys R' Us on some Thomas the Train items.  I used a coupon that expired on Halloween night for $20 off of any wooden Thomas train set, and found the Railway Snowy Mountain Figure 8 Adventure on clearance for $42.85, which means I snagged it for $22.85 - SCORE!  It's listed now for $122.99, I wonder if that was a listing mistake on their part?  Either way, works for me!  Speaking of Christmas, without further ado.........

Pretty Frame Ring Holder

Messy Messy Fail - I made lists for my trip with the kids to visit my family - I remembered zippy cups, underwear, swimsuits and ear protection for the Air Show.  What was the only thing I forgot?  The toddler's Blue Bunny which is a sleeping necessity.  Of course I forgot Blue Bunny.

Tidy Victory - We had a successful visit to both mine and my husband's families - no trips to Urgent Care, lots of fun activities, good food and lots of love.

In 2014 (or was it 2013?), a post on Facebook went around about making a homemade gift for the first 5 people who responded to you to show that you appreciated them within the year.  

I was very intrigued by this idea and said to myself, "Myself, I wonder what I could come up with?"

I have since made and delivered a few, but not all.  

I'm still going to finish them (for those of you who are still waiting!).

For one special friend, I had the perfect homemade gift in mind - a pretty frame ring holder.  She was genuinely in love with her engagement and wedding rings when she received them, and I thought this craft would be a cute way to display them.  

I first found the idea on Pinterest here and wanted to try to recreate it for my friend.  Renee at Sassy Wife/Classy Life did a great job of coming up with this unique idea.  I had to try making one myself!

I asked her about the colors in her bedroom (green, white and black) to try to pick colors to match.

To make your own pretty frame ring holder, you need:

a mini picture frame (purchased mine at Michael's from the dollar

   bin in front)

a piece of craft foam

a piece of pretty felt

jewels for blinging

scissors

pencil

glue gun

pretty straight pins

Here's what you need to do:

• Remove the plastic covering from the frame.  Mine ripped out pretty easily with the exception of a few pieces.  I just used my eyebrow tweezers to get the remaining pieces out.
• I used the paper that came inside the frame to trace the same shape onto the craft foam.  I then cut that piece out as well as a second the same size.

• Place the pieces of foam inside the frame and trim as necessary.  Make sure you can close and clasp the frame.  Some of the corners on my mine stuck out a bit due to the foam but that's okay.

• Use the paper that came inside the frame to trace the same shape onto the felt.  You can really use any fabric, I chose felt so it wouldn't show any holes left from the pin.

• Place the piece of cut felt on top of the two pieces of foam and secure in the frame with the back closed.  You should be able to see the pretty fabric through the front of the frame.
• Now the fun part - plug in your hot glue gun and start decorating your frame to fit your recipient's style.  I used faux pearls, green and clear jewels.  I only decorated the two sides of the frames - I didn't want it to get out of control.

As you can see some blinging got a little messy.  Must be neat and tidy!

• Let your decorations dry.  If there are any misplaced or sloppy jewels you can use the tweezers to take them off and reglue until you are happy.
• Push your pretty pin in through the felt and foam angled upward to hold rings.  Be careful not to push the pins through the back of the frame.

• Hang your gorgeous jewelry and admire!

I had so much fun making this for my friend because I was finally able to get my craft on (haven't done that in awhile) and I knew she would like it (hopefully)!

She lives down the street from my mom, Nana Patti, whom I do visit several times a year but I haven't gotten to see J (my friend) in awhile.  We made a special meeting time after she got out of work and I was waking children up so she could stop by for a quick visit and I could give her the homemade gift.

We were originally going to take a walk down to her house to visit her kids too, but the toddler got sick and I didn't want him taking his nastiness to her house.

I think she liked it!

We even got to catch up a bit.  J makes me laugh so hard, I loved making the ring holder for her.

Enjoy making your homemade gift to show someone you care!

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