Enjoy your Home NOW! - Pep Talk + Free 'Projects' Printable

Enjoy your Home NOW!

You can make this happen...

live pretty, less stressed...

within the time you have and your budget!

Growing up, we 4 kids always "teased" my mom about how

she ALWAYS would say "ok..lets make a plan"...

Well, now that we are older..we still lovingly tease her but with

the realization that WE SAY IT NOW ALL THE TIME!

My husband laughs every time I say "ok babe we need to make a plan."

But Seriously.

Make a plan.

I'm a list girl. and that is the only way thing can happen sometimes!

It helps take all the cluttered thoughts and stress we put on ourselves

as women, wives, mothers to make it all be put together around us!

By writing things down we can get it out of our head and onto paper.

I love decorating my home..but sometimes things like,

Oh I don't know..

having 3 kids and no money to just throw around, get in the way ;)

psh. lame.

At the same time, I know that I want to not keep putting off these home projects that I know would make me LOVE our home.. and enjoy moments in it more!

If I'm a stay at home mom stuck in the house for a good amount of

hours each day..I want to love my space!

SO..I realized that I just needed to "make a plan" and I would be

able to get through some of the projects and make it happen!

I created a free printable to help you do just that in your home too! yipee free printables

The Busy Budgeting Mama's Project Printable- Free Download

Print one out for each project.. as few or as many as you have in mind!

I made it with nifty little circles to check off.. so you feel awesome. ;)

Having a price area there you can keep track of how much a project will cost you..

and then by having a space for you to fill in where you'll get it (or to mark if you already have it)

you can make your trips to the store more time efficient!

I put a timeline next to the steps..so that you can lay it all out there so you don't feel overwhelmed (Maybe monday you'll buy supplies. wednesday you'll spray paint the frames.. etc..)

MY TIPS TO HELP MAKE

HOME PROJECTS HAPPEN:

-Invite company over.

Makes you hustle your buns.. with that motivation,you'll probably

finish projects that have been on your list 

Hide unfolded laundry in your room on your bed.

--Have a sitter come over during the day for 2 hours.

You will be amazed at what you can get in done in a short amount of uninterrupted time.

or maybe you won't be amazed...

I forgot what was even possible until the other day when I had help. haha.

--Gather Ideas from PINTEREST!

You'll feel inspired..and your creative juices will be flowing.

--Shop your house.

I really wanted to decorate our new space(we moved over easter)

but I didn't want to spend a lot of money.

Sometimes gathering up items and seeing them all together, seeing what you have...

helps you think of how you can use them in a new way!

One of the projects I wanted to make happen right after moving into our

new rental was to hang a gallery wall using all of the black and

white frames I've collected over our 6 years of marriage.

I enjoy it EVERY DAY. I spend a lot of time in our kitchen and family room...

so It was really important to me to make it happen.

I posted about the gallery wall already. I eventually plan on posting

the details on what I put in all my frames.

(below photo: sophie building a house. serious business.)

There are days NOTHING can get done.

and you need to give up

and go play in the backyard.

just do it. watch the clouds or something.

eat ice cream , put the sprinklers on or blow bubbles on the front steps.

Try again tomorrow.

 Enjoy your space. no matter how big or small it is!

Even little projects can help make your house, HOME.

and then LIVE in it. Enjoy it...

Let your kids help you "decorate" with stuffed animals on the sofa..

micah was as confused as I was. I guess they thought

 the space needed more personality.

 This is your Pep-Talk!

I get so many emails from mamas who are like ahhh

I want to do this project or that project but I just can't make it happen.

FIRST THINGS FIRST: (This goes for all women, but)

If you are a mom.. You are doing ENOUGH.

YOU are enough.

your kids are alive? awesome.

your kids are laughing and having fun in between punching each other? awesome.

"Make a plan"..and make your house a home for YOU...

  but know that even if you don't have frames on your wall you are pretty awesome.

I want you to feel motivated and capable..but also encouraged in that 

you aren't the only one trying to make it all happen and stressing about it when it feels like it just isn't happening.

We have all been there.

Print off this printable. write down all the ideas and projects you want to do...

including the steps and budget and then...relax.
go squeeze on a baby.

unless you are writing while squeezing a baby like I usually am.

They seriously don't stop touching me..... ;)

Hotel Gift Bag for our Weekend Company!

This past weekend we had some friends come to town!

I met Mandy (of House of Rose) at Blissdom this past year..

and we quickly became really good friends. We are similar in so many ways.. and I feel beyond blessed to have discovered our friendship through the blogging land!

I was so excited about their last minute decision to make the 10 hour drive to come see us...

More details on the weekend soon!

I wanted to share something that I

had so much fun doing for our company!

I have seen the idea of 'Hotel Gift Bags for your wedding guests' all over pinterest.

I don't plan on getting married again anytime soon....so I jumped at the chance to leave our weekend company a little surprise goodie bag for when they checked into their hotel!

We have a tiny house. and although we offered them the basement...I think they appreciated having their space at a hotel. It was good for the kids to have a break from each other too I think. Lots of fun giggling shenanigans were going on all weekend. ;)

It was so fun being super sneaky and leaving it at the front desk for them!

Sienna tagged a long on our "mission."

I made up a little tag the night before to look like a hotel privacy sign.

Just welcoming them and I even put one of their blog's logos on the car.

(Dollars and Roses) I can't help but brand things.

Then I loaded up a gift bag (from target) with everything a family

in a hotel room with 3 boy toddlers could possibly need! snacks. juice boxes.

fruit. super hero stickers. car stickers. and sticky lizzards.

Pretty sure the hotel management was THRILLED with the

sticky lizzard stuck to the ceiling.....

My husband also threw a beer in the bag as I ran

out the door to the hotel.. For Jeff. I heard it was appreciated ;) 

It was fun seeing the photo of the bag pop up on our instagram

feed while we waited for them to come from the hotel to our house!

I thought it was a good way to start off the weekend. ;)

Even if you don't have photoshop to create a tag.. a hand written

tag on a bag full of goodies would mean so much to your visitors!

You could even leave it in the guest room of your house...

or for when they are about to leave.. to take for the drive home!

Black and White Gallery Wall up in Kitchen!

In our new rental, we have a big wall behind the eating area of our kitchen...

and I knew right away I wanted to do a gallery wall with all my black and white frames!

I'll do a more detailed post sometime soon.

Right now I just put all the frames up on the wall and

I have some different prints to update them next.

Since taking the photo below, of the frames up on the wall,

I backed up and moved the bottom row all over a little to the right. haha.

The perfectionist in my has been tweaking them. ;)

 The next morning we enjoyed eating breakfast while looking at our frames!

Excited to UPDATE the frames next! I'll be sharing what I put in them

and where the frames are all from. Super happy with how it's coming together.

FREE PRINTABLE- Movie Themed Teacher Gift Tag

Most of my popular printables this time of year... are ones for teachers!

I sell a variety in my shop. But I thought it might be fun to offer a FREE one that I just created for a client. She planned a whole week to celebrate the teachers at their

school. It was a Hollywood Theme based off of one of the printables she saw in my shop already. LOVEDD IT! We need to celebrate our teachers more often.

I hope that this post inspires you to do the same at your school.

Even if it's just one of the days!

Here's the flyer we made up to put in all the teachers' boxes:

 Here's my free teacher printable for you!

Please Go make your teachers feel special!

FREE MOVIE THEME TEACHER TAG PRINTABLE-

Winner of a PICTURE PEFECT YEAR

(Ten tags on your printable PDF)

Click the above link to download the full page pdf. Print, cut and attach to a gift.

You could do a movie theatre gift card or a bag of popcorn/candy!

I also offer a customized one...

"Thanks for a PICTURE PERFECT Year! Love, _____"

One of my top teacher themed sellers. I add your text.

I also have a (write in your own name) immediate download version of that one too.

Here are some more of the tags my

client is gifting to her teachers each day!

Pair these tags with STARBURSTS for a cute gift!

Immediate Download - $5

(Ten tags on your printable PDF)

I think a single soda or a cute 6 pack of mini sodas

would be perfect with this tag!

IMMEDIATE DOWNLOAD- $5

(Ten tags on your printable PDF)

These would be cute attached to a container or bag of popcorn!

You could make it fancy with white chocolate or

go real crazy by gifting a variety of flavors! ;)

IMMEDIATE DOWNLOAD - $5

(Ten tags on your printable PDF)

I did a fun post on yummy popcorn recipes while

I was doing party prep for my girls' Vintage Circus Birthday Party

I originally created all of these for teacher gifts...

but they would be perfect for a Movie themed party,

movie night with friends or an Oscars Party!

DIY Faux Birch Cement Tube Dessert Stands (My Dessert Table DIY)

This has to be one of my favorite DIY Projects I've done!

From start to finish it was so fun creating these Faux Birch Stands!

I made them out of Cement Tubes... and used them as stands for my dessert table!

I had seen similar items to purchase...but I wanted a grouping and my budget was slim to none..so it was the perfect opportunity to do it myself!

Here's how I MADE them..and at the end of the post see how I USED them!

FAUX BIRCH STANDS SUPPLIES:

Cement Tube (Home Improvement Store)

Wood Glue (Home Improvement Store)

Liquitex Acrylic Gesso Paint (Craft Store)

Brown Acrylic Paint (Craft Store)

Toilet Paper

3 Paper Plates

Cardboard box (I always have some somewhere...

but you can get free ones from your dollar tree!

ask and you shall receive.. most of the time. ;)

Tools:

Little Paint Brush

2 Little Foam Brushs

Box Cutter

Pencil. OR crayon if you have kids and hide all sharp things like me.

STEPS:

--First things first...gather supplies. set up a work space.

--Take your cement tube roll that you awkwardly carried through the home improvement store while pushing a stroller and directing children.

and Figure out the heights of stands you want..I knew I wanted 5 different stands...

so I marked the tube accordingly.

--Get your handy man husband to use his muscled and cut the cement tube (it's a sturdy cardboard?) using the box cutter. make sure no fingers are lost. because a trip to the ER will only delay the fun painting part that is coming up...

and the losing a finger thing. that would be painful too.

--Next you need to create the tops of your stands.

Place your cut cement tube piece onto a piece of cardboard (I used part of a cardboard box I had) and trace with a crayon/pencil whatever

(wow just noticed how nasty that crayon looks below...

nice smoosh of play dough on it. lovely. only the best props for my blog photos. ;)

ANYWAYS.... trace it... then I'm pretty sure I just used the wood glue to attach the lid to the tube. I can't remember! But if that doesn't stick enough use regular glue...hot glue...

just GLUE it.

REPEAT. create all your little stands and if arrange how you think you might use them.. you can always trim them down a bit with the box cutters to get the right heights!

This is one of my favorite parts...

Now you need to get a paper plate..and squirt a little bit of the Acrylic Gesso Paint...

tear up a few shreds of toilet paper.. mix together with your foam brush.

keep adding and mixing till you get the right consistency.

Pretty gross looking and feeling... smoosh it against the sides of the tubing...

You are trying to create knots and texture for your faux birch!

The sloppier the better usually. don't do each knot the same.

Your kids watching you might think you are crazy AND awesome.

Next take another paper plate and squirt some of the Acrylic Gesso.

Paint your stands..and know your brush strokes add to the texture of your faux birch...

so play with that a little when you brush! have fun and cover completely.

**If you want, you could use caulk to fill in the edges around the lid...

or push in more of the paint. I didn't mind the texture!**

Let the white dry.

Next squirt a little of the brown acrylic paint onto a paper plate.

Use the tip of your foam brush to swipe on little brown lines...

At first I was nervous I was going to wreck it completely....but then I started getting the hang of it and it came together! Just take a step back, occasionally, and see what you think! add more or stop and let dry.

I wasn't patient enough to wait for it to dry...

I just was very careful didn't touch the sides while I painted the top.

I used my paper plate with the brown paint on it..and squirted a little of the white acrylic gesso paint and mixed to get the right color.

Then painted the tops of my faux birch stands. Done!

I first created these to add levels to my Dessert Table at my Girls' Storybook Princess Party.

On the map of Once Upon A Time Land, which we sent out in the POP-UP INVITE, I showed a Cookie Forest..so of course We HAD to have the stands be trees!! My girls loved it.

and we all devoured the cookies. (which they loved seeing mounded up at easy access ;)

Then I pulled them out again to add some levels to

my dessert table at our Monster Bash!

It was the perfect touch to our spooky kid friendly Halloween Party.

Would love to see how you use your DIY Faux Birch Stands!

Share withe me on Facebook or

Tag me if you post photos on Instagram @thebusybudgetingmama

How I Hang groups of Frames- A Sanity Saver Tip

I'm the type of person that can't live in a space long before I want to decorate!

I have a pretty big collection of white frames from our past house...

and I decided to do a grouping above our sofa's yesterday.

The basement is currently covered in boxes that need to be unpacked BUT!

 I knew where my frames were..and where my wrapping paper was...

so it was go time! 

(As asked on INSTAGRAM: All the frames except the one that holds 4, are from IKEA.

The Couch is from La-Z-Boy, Rug from RUGSUSA.com)

I usually start with laying out my design on the ground.. moving things around...

then I roll out the wrapping paper on the floor, place the frame on top, cut around it then tape to wall where I want it! I take a step back at the end and sometimes rearrange a bit.

It's not an exact science..but it is way more helpful than

just throwing them up and hoping for the best!

I'm pretty happy with how it turned out..

now I need to update some of the frames as soon as I find the printer..hmm......

Micah is usually a fan of home projects.

He was happily watching ben and I hang shelves in the kitchen the other day...

until he turned into a raptor and the decorating/organizing officially ended that day.

REALITY CHECK: If you stop by my house to borrow a cup of sugar...

this is how you will find me. GLAM. please excuse the jazz hands..?!

Most days it's either the house OR me that gets cute.

Sometimes you just can't do it all. ;)

**Obviously would much rather hang frames than go through clothes on floor.

We also hung up some frame ledges and frames above our tv.

this is directly across from our the sofa's from above.

(Need to update the frame on the far right.)

The middle frame has a sweet pre-engagement love letter from ben and

a photo strip of us from dating. :) A good reminder during our busy days.

If you want to see other things I framed..here's a post from our old house.

NURSERY WALL-WHAT I FRAMED

OLD HOUSE LITTLE iPHONE PHOTO TOUR

Thank goodness doctor sophie was able to do a quick in-home

check up for Micah while I got things settled around here.

I was told his heart rated sounded great.

I recently discovered my iPhone photo library was filled with this face.

Sienna pretty much has perfected the kissy face.

She also took the below photo of her brother...

a very authentic "don't even think about it" face to his sister. ;)

You can see more of our house photos as it comes along on my Instagram!

FOLLOW US HERE.

Four Favorites Series: My DIY Posts

While I am away at BLISSDOM I wanted to

share a fun series of favorite posts from these fun years of blogging!

Maybe some of these posts are your favorites too...

or maybe you'll discover a new post to check out!

Thanks for stopping by. ;)

The first post is on all things DIY.

DIY Projects  are my hobby. they help me relax.

I love being creative!

Even when it means juggling giant cement tubes from home depot to take home and make faux birch tree cake stands for a dessert table.

Some people would think that would be a pain... I love it!

So hard to choose just 4.. but here ya go. ;)

1. Felt Board

2. Cardboard Castle

3. Tulle Tutus

4. Animal Lid Jars

Stop by all week/weekend long to see more of my favorites.

(PERSONAL POSTS, AND RECIPES to come! woohoo.)

While I'm away, follow my Blissdom fun via

twitter, instagram and facebook!

Can't wait to share all the fun I'm having with

blog friends and the wisdom from amazing blog mentors!