These boots were made for photos...

Just a little shout out to Nancy Sinatra...  ( you can thank me for this glorious earworm later)

We had family pictures this past September with Tracey Brown Photography, I had collections of photo ideas that I just adored... I kept coming back to these photos of great textures... I needed to figure out how to incorporate that into our family photos, without spending a lot of cash...

Here's a love bug photo of the apple of my eye and myself - just for funsies.  He's adorable!

Enough gushing... back to the nitty gritty's.....


My daughter is right on the brink of a growth spurt... so I was hesitant to purchase items that she would only wear this once for photos...
So...  I put on my shopping shoes... and hit up our local consignment shop, Extra's - I found some great rain boots here.  I also frequented the local Goodwill in Oskaloosa to look for some great clothing items that would add texture to our photos while not costing a lot.

Now these boots aren't exactly what I was looking for as shoes for her our little miss.... no worries,
Challenge accepted!  These were perfect for our Christmas Photo Color Combo: Black, Red, White.  What?  Dairy cows don't seem to be very holiday-ish? 

What holiday girl doesn't like a little "BLING"??????  Spray paint and glitter glue can make that happen!!!

I tied some fun ribbons on the loops and dolled those all up!    - Watch for a Christmas card sporting these bad boys.  :)

The next challenge was in the same court of shoes... I dearly love moccasins... and the fringe boot style is absolutely darling... if you have $65.00 to spare...
So my first thought was fringe leggings...  which I made out of fringe trim from WalMart that was $1.33 a yard... and a pair of ladies dress socks from The Dollar Tree....  for a whopping total of $2.33...  However, it wasn't love at first sight...

THEN....

I had another idea... why not spray paint  another pair of boots the same chocolate brown color and glue the fringe onto the boots???   I would just make my own fringe boots!  I had these boots at our house, they were the basic black rain boot from your local farm store...
Chocolate Brown Spray Paint - on hand...
Just need to pick up a couple more yards of the fringe at Wal-Mart...

Glued the fringe onto the boot... and viola.... Shoes for photo perfection...  Here are a few photos of those lovely fringe boots... 

Photos taken by: Tracey Brown Photography out of Ottumwa 

 

 

 

 

Now someday my sweet baby girl can totally have those fringe moccasins that cost upward of $60.00...  just not for these photos... 

*** Décor for the photo props***

 - material for garland - furnished by my mom and grandmother.  This material was from my father's work shirts, jeans, and other scraps that my sewing family had on hand.  It was nice to have that incorporated with my family photos. 
- Radio Flyer Wagon - was my baby brother's - it has had many years of use...  and love....


Would you have improvised, re-purposed, and re-used or just bought new?

Let's Spice Things Up!!!! The Smothers' Spice Cabinet Organization

I LOVE MY KITCHEN!!!
I can't say that enough.  I am very lucky to have such a great room... 

However... 

I have a corner cabinet that has a lazy susan in it...  and I have been keeping my spices on the bottom rack...  I can't ever find the right spice for the recipe I am making... therefore I come up with 4 containers of Rosemary Leaf, 3 containers of both Ground Mustard and Mustard Seed.

 Not the greatest thing for staying in our grocery budget. 

I visited our local Dollar Tree to see what containers they would have for spice storage, and I came up with these cuties...

I purchased 5 packages of 10 containers for a total of $5.00
Got out my trusty label maker - made up labels for each spice container - both for the top of the lid as well as the side.  Therefore I can see the spice name wherever they may be.  Great news... I also came across 3 containers of dillweed...  REeeeeallll Nice....

You can see our kitchen layout in this link : Smothers' Kitchen

I thought about using a riser system to display all the containers.... I thought about just stacking them up all in rows...  this is me "practicing" a new layout....

I have all these extra bottles that are odd balls... I put those guys all together on the second shelf...grouping the like ones together, I married the misc bottles of cinnamon, parsley etc. together into one big bottle, cleaning up some sq. footage. 

I decided to go with a smaller lazy susan inside the bottom shelf of the cabinet left of the stove... right about my cooking utensil drawer...

I even put my baking items on the top shelf.. so now ALL my spices and baking items are all housed together. 
Have you found a good spice organization system that works for you?

Fall Subway Art - Free Printable!

Who is inspired by the change between August and September?  After the summer heat, we tend to look forward to that sweet crispy morning air, smell of dewey leaves, the slight chill in the mornings, bonfires, hooded sweatshirts, and of course- Hawkeye Football! 

 

For our entryway we have a revolving seasonal display - here is the link to our Summer Display...http://smothersx3.blogspot.com/2013_05_01_archive.html

 

For fall 2013 - I am going to do Autumn decor with this color pallette.....

• Aqua
• Dark Turquoise
• Orange
• Chocolate Brown

 

 

Here is a photo from Instagram that I took of our Fall Decor - more up close photos of this to come. 

 

 

 

 

I was inspired by this photo I saw out on Pinterest for my color combo for this fall...

 

 

In celebration of my decision..... drumroll please...

I have made up a free printable subway art that will sit in our entryway... all these items are things I love about fall....

Feel free to print, frame and display in your house!

 

 

 

Happy Fall Y'all!

 

Road Trippin!!!!!! Toddler Style...

Traveling with a toddler... it's probably every parents nightmare...  I know that the idea caused a little anxiety within the Smothers' household!

We were able to take our very first family vacation this summer, we drove 12+ hours to Estes Park for a wonderful 5 days of fresh mountain air and gorgeous scenery.  - More to come on that later...

Back to the preparation for this "delightful" time together in the car....

We have a 2 year old who is soon to be 3.... and has a very active mind and delights in constant conversation, activity, and questions....  now how to keep her mind stimulated, my patience level acceptable and loving, while also delighting her on her first family vacation....

CHALLENGE ACCEPTED!

a.) I would like to start this out by saying "THANK YOU!!!!!" to The Dollar Tree for providing very affordable items for my family.... without that store this trip would NOT have been as successful!

I calculated it would take us approximately 12 hours of driving (one direction).  Therefore I put together one brown paper sack for each hour - so 24 bags of fun total....

within each bag there was:

a.) a felt board activity that one might find in a quiet book
b.) a new little toy  - coloring book, stickers, puzzles etc.
c.) nursery rhyme to read and try to memorize

Here are a few photos from her activities in the bags....

 

Here she is racing cars on the felt board - 3 cars for 1.00

 

 

Magnetized paper dolls - she is playing on a $1.00 cookie sheet

I purchased these dolls from a local consignment shop - "Extras" in Pella.

 

Cookies anyone?  She can put any color and flavor of frosting on her chocolate cookies, as well as put sprinkles or other frosting decoration on your cookie...  She's a great baker folks!

 

The other items that were brought with us to help out with these bags and activities were:

a.) a dry erase marker board

b.) a felt board - I covered a canvas with felt

c.) a cookie sheet for items that had magnets - this also worked for a tray

 

We brought along plenty of snacks - fruit snacks, finger foods and stopped along the way for stretches, a ball for playing soccer in the truck stops, as well as our Kindle that had some fun games downloaded on it.  She surprisingly didn't choose to play on the Kindle as much as we figured she would. 

 

Here is us ladies at Lake McConoughy in Ogallala, NE - we had a picnic lunch here and played in the water.

 

 

 

 

 

Our little miss loved these treat bags, and did really great overall with sitting still for so long.  We had a great family vacation!  I will for sure do this again...  I had maybe $40.00 in this - well worth our sanity!!!!!

 

I put together a list of items for entertainment - here are a few items on this list:

 

 

• photo album with pictures of your child, family members and friends
• Quiet book pages - felt pages/activities
• Audible.com - free books to download
• Children's music CD's
• "What is Missing?" - hide something and have them guess what is missing
• "I Spy" - Red Stop Sign, Brown Truck etc. 
• Pandora on phone - Elmo and other Toddler Radio Stations
• Guess the Animal Noise Game
• Aluminum Foil - Make and mold items
• Dry Erase Markers and Board
• Black Paper and Chalk
• Color Game - call out a color and then look for it.
• Cards -  matching games, abc flash cards, etc.

 

 

Or if you are just bored and feel like goofing around... make a mustache out of paper and double sided tape... and entertain your car buddies and those on the Interstate...

 



 

For other traveling ideas - please feel free to check out my board on Pinterest...

 

http://pinterest.com/mmici21/traveling-with-kids/

 

 

Jewelry Organization - displaying all my pretties

So I have all this fun jewelry... but I can't seem to ever find what I want to wear with my outfits...

I know I am not the only gal out there that looks at these piles o crap - er I mean Piles of Jewelry in the morning and feels overwhelmed by it. 

My dresser while large enough to hold a lot of stuff - lucky girl eh???  However the drawer I had all my jewelry, hair bands, watches, sunglasses and the ever so sneaky bobby pin all seemed to jumble up in that drawer...

Here's the beaut..  AFTER it had been cleaned out and "organized"

Top of the dresser before....

Collected items from around the house....
I had these goodies so this project cost me nothing!

What I used: Paper Towel Holder, Fruit Basket, Pants Hanger, Trays, and yes my friends.. a glass head (what can I say, I am a collector of odd items)



Top of dresser after....

 

Some photos for inspiration of each "station"

 

Now hopefully I will be able to see all my pretty jewelry and be able to pick what I want to wear much easier! 

 

Homemade Cleaning Products - Air Freshener

As promised on Facebook.... the "Recipes" for the homemade cleaning products that I have made and used over the past two weeks - they have worked for the 2 weeks, and have held up, thought I would try them out before sharing with everyone...

Over the past two weeks I have used one bottle of Pine Sol that I purchased at Target for $2.42 - for several different cleaner recipes - which I will share with you all over the course of this week. I still have some left of the cleaner even!!! Probably close to a cup of cleaner remains after all recipes were made.

 

Air Freshener for Pennies!!!!

 

 

Ingredients:

1c Baking Soda

4Tbs Pine Sol

Container - I used a rubbermaid container

 

Directions:

Mix together baking soda and cleaner until you form a rough sand texture. Place mixture into your storage container.  Put freshener in desired room - out of the reach of children and pets preferably. 

Shake every week or so to loosen up scent and change out each month.   

 

Cost:

Baking Soda - on hand

Pine Sol - maybe .10???

Container - on hand

 

Time:

Nothing FLAT!

 



 

You may also find inspiration at this website:

http://www.imperfecthomemaking.com/2011/05/super-simple-homemade-air-freshener.html?showComment=1305034685386

Homemade Cleaning Products - Garbage Disposal Freshener Pods

As promised on Facebook.... the "Recipes" for the homemade cleaning products that I have made and used over the past two weeks - they have worked for the 2 weeks, and have held up, thought I would try them out before sharing with everyone...

Over the past two weeks I have used one bottle of Pine Sol that I purchased at Target for $2.42 - for several different cleaner recipes - which I will share with you all over the course of this week. I still have some left of the cleaner even!!! Probably close to a cup of cleaner remains after all recipes were made.

Garbage Disposal Freshners/Cleaner Pods

 

 

 

Ingredients:

1c Baking Soda

4 Tbs Pine-Sol

1/2c Salt

 

Directions:

 

Mix all ingredients together - to form a rough sand texture - this will fizz a bit.

Form into tabs with metal spoon or metal measuring spoon - press together firmly - place onto wax paper to dry overnight

 

Makes rougly 12 -15 tabs depending on how large you form your tabs with your measuring spoon.

 

Mine were not all dry from overnight - I turned them over in the morning and they were completely dry within a few hours. 

 

Place into an air tight container for storage.

 

Drop into disposal while running warm water and disposal on. 

 

Cost:

Baking Soda - on hand

Salt - on hand

Pine- Sol - .25

 

I've been spending how much on those cleaning tabs/packets at Wal-Mart and Target????  OUCH!



Time:
To mix together products took about 2 minutes - I ended up doubling the recipe.
To form the tabs took about 10 minutes
Drying - overnight - flipped over to dry the underside another 3 hours.


I used this site for original inspirationa and tweaked it a bit for my own recipe. 

http://srg123.blogspot.com/2013/05/diy-garbage-disposal-freshener.html