This week 5 years ago...

This week 5 years ago, I found out my Mom had cancer.

I had just gotten back from a trip to look at colleges with my two best friends. When I got home, my parents sat me down and told me my mom had lymphoma. At the time we thought it was curable, but a week later we found out it was terminal and she was diagnosed the mantel cell lymphoma. She had a very aggressive cancer and started on chemo therapy right away. She went into what we thought was "remission" in February. The doctors told us she would probably be in remission for about five years and then it would eventually come back and end her life. The doctors were wrong. In August 2006 we found out her cancer was back, and that it had actually never really gone away. I had just gotten engaged, so my mom and I went and picked out my wedding dress the week we found out it was back. I am SO thankful to the Lord that we went then, and didn't wait. On August 25, 2006 my mom went to heaven. I was thankful that she didn't have to suffer anymore, and knew that God loved her so much that he wanted her to be with him. I bet that was a very happy day in heaven when my mom went home.

Most lymphoma cancers are treatable and can be cured. The only thing I have found that I can do to personally help is to be on the bone marrow donor list. I hope someday I can be a match for someone and help them.

I miss my mom everyday but I know that it was God's will and she was too wonderful not to have with him in heaven. It is so crazy to see how my life has changed in the last five years.

Shirt Re-fashions I have tried!

I saw this adorable flutter flower shirt on Momma go Round a few months ago, so I thought I would test it out! Mine doesn't have nearly as many flowers as hers, because I got impatient! I also cut the neckline of the shirt so it would be more of a boat neck instead of a crew neck. Try it out!

This next shirt is one I saw on A few of my Favorite Things. I LOVED this one

And lastly is one I just added a little embelishment to!

I am obsessed with adding fun things to shirts, so there will probably be more to come!

Bottle Cap Magnets

I saw a cute idea at craft warehouse a while ago where they put some magnets on bottle caps to make them magnets. I thought this was a great idea since I have TONS of bottle caps... Thanks to my husband! So, I decided I would print out some pictures, and make picture bottle cap magnets.

Supplies you will need: Magnets, bottle caps, pictures cut into size of caps and I used hot glue.

First I glued the magnet to the bottle cap

Then I glued the picture on! Here is my little pumpkin Thomas. I printed the pictures from my computer, so the glue kind of made the ink change a little bit of color, so you might consider if you care about that when you are making yours.

All my finished bottle cap magnets!

My boys holding up one of my favorite pictures of my man.

Apple Butter

Today I made apple butter with my Grandma! My Grandma is the stereotypical Grandma. Very sweet, always loving, and always trying to feed you something! She taught me how to sew when I was 6, and now she is teaching me how to can! Here is what we did, and the steps involved!

1. Peel, core and cut the apples. We used a little contraption that peeled, cut and cored the apples at once.

2. Put all the apples in a pot and fill with water so that it just covers the apples. Cood for about 20 minutes or until the apples are soft.

3. Take the cooked apples and blend them up until they are smooth.

4. After all the apples are blended, add sugar, cinnamon and cloves. For the sugar you add 1 cup of sugar for every four cups of apples. I had 12 cups of apples so I added 3 cups of sugar. Then I added about 3tbs. of cinnamon and 2 tsp of cloves.

5. Next cook it on medium heat for about 20 minutes.

6. We used a canning steamer. We put the lid on top and once it started steaming we set the timer for 20 minutes. After that we were done! And we have apple butter!!!!!!!!

FREE photo books!

I am getting ready for Christmas and I have already gotten 4 of these photo books! Your first one as a new customer can be FREE! Here is an example of one of the books I made.

Pic from my phone so not great

Sign up with picaboo here



After getting to the website you will download the software that is TOTALLY SAFE and start creating your photo book!
FREE 20 page leather book with this code for first time users 1FBLGB-7W

For any books after you can receive 10% off plus free shiping!

Dog Halloween Costume

Gabe and I got our sweet pug Gus Gus before we were married. He is a beast of a pug... Probably the biggest one I have ever seen! Before we had Thomas, he was our only child, so I made him a halloween costume! He was a pirate! Here is our happy pug in his costume.

Our big big boy

Cutest dog pirate I have ever seen!

Told you he was huge!

Giant Pumpkin!

This is my first year of growing a garden, and it has been a learning experience! I didn't realize how big some plants got, or what other plants needed to survive. I planted ONE pumpkin seed, and that little seed turned into a giant plant that took over my entire garden! Gabe has been trying to groom it, but it is crazy. From my crazy huge plant I got ONE GIANT PUMPKIN! We weighed it and it weighs 61 pounds! It was fun to have a pumpkin, but that dang plant killed a lot of other plants from getting so huge! Needless to say next year I will not be planting a pumpkin.

Re-purpose old sweater to hat!

I stayed awake a long time last night thinking of this project! I made myself a hat from an old sweater dress I had in my closet. First I just cut out a hat shape in out of the dress, and then sewed the sides together.

Apparently I am into rosettes lately, but they are so easy and fun!

VERY easy fun project! Just find an old sweater, cut it into hat shape and then decorate!

Second Clock

In the before pictures of my clock tutorial post, I posted two clocks. Here is what the bigger clock ended up as:

I painted the outer rim red, used some of my scrap book paper for the middle. Subtle polka dots in the back, of course! :)

Close up of my flower design

Gnome Costume Complete!

Today while Thomas napped I was able to complete his gnome costume! I am so excited about how it turned out!

The back of my little gnome! I love the fur on the legs

I was trying to get him to stand next to our little gnomes out front

He is such a doll. What a good little boy God blessed us with.