Pinterest Addiction

There are so many cute things on Pinterest! I have started My Pinterest Virtual Closet lol.  Now I just need the outfits to appear in my closet!

It's Funny the Things You Miss...

I have been missing the military a lot lately. You know the whole the grass is always greener thing. While G was on active duty the disorganization and time commitment drove me crazy. Now that he is with Guard I miss the structure and discipline.

Even in civilian life i look around and wonder how different things would be if there were more discipline and structure. I feel like we live in a society where people have lost respect for superiors, elders, teachers, even being decent to coworkers is no longer something people do. All I hear is what a pain bosses are, how the elderly are too forgetful to work with, teachers are mean, coworkers are jerks. Everyone deserves a little understanding and everyone deserves respect. We are all human beings.  But then again in a society where we tip toe around discipline with friendly reminds, write ups, and no follow through what can you expect but a break down in the chain of command. 

Yummy!

How lucky am I to have a husband that cooks!

Tuned In or Tuned Out

Do you ever get the feeling we are more connected to our electronics then we are to each other? I first considered this when I was bummed that there were no pins on Pinterest or feeds on Facebook in the hour since I had last checked. I considered it again when i tried to make justifications for why I checked my social media so much.

In reality I don't spend a whole lot of time with electronics because I work in a environment that does not allow it. I don't have my cell phone on me at work, and I don't work with computers that have Internet access. But the first thing I do in the morning and the last thing I do at night is check my various social media sites.

That alone isn't too bad, what is bad is the amount of time G and I spend in front of the TV. Him watching shows (which I consider dumb) and me on the computer because I don't like what's on TV. We are in the some room side by side and completely tuned out.

That is one of the reasons I am really excited for our weekends away hiking or at the beach. No Internet, no TV just good old human interaction :-) Can you tell I'm looking forward to this weekend!

T-Shirts, Stencils, and Paint

My new favorite craft is painting shirts! Why pay $30 for a workout T when you can make one for a fraction of that.

The following stencils were made by Jen at Stronger With Jen G they are awesome and I'm super excited she sent them to me!  The stencils were made with Silhouette Cameo and sticky vinyl.   

 

 This is the same stencil, they are generally only used once, but I loved it and very carefully removed it and reused it.

 I <3 burpees! Who doesn't :-)

These shirts came out pretty cool but I did learn a few things in the process.

When I started working on these shirts my first thought was I would use them to work out in.  The black shirt is a Dankin work out shirt from Walmart.  (I had this shirt liked the fit and had worked out in it.  Since it was still pretty new I decided to use it for this project). It's not a silky feeling moisture wicking kind, but the t-shirt feeling kind.  The stencil stuck great but I did learn it's better to dab the paint on vs brushing it on.  Brushing it on causes the stencils to peel up if you aren't super careful. I used soft t-shirt paint.  It's expensive but I have found it holds up better.

I liked how the first shirt came out so much that I decided I wanted one just to wear around and not necessarily workout in it.  I had a grey t-shirt (just a plain old Fruit of the Loom grey t-shirt) and decided to give the stencil a second go.  I had read about a lot spray paint diy t-shirts so this time I used black spry paint, yep just paint from Home Depot. The pros, it covers fast and there no mess to clean up, and it is washable in the washing machine. The cons, you have to cover every bit of shirt not covered by the stencil or you will get paint in unwanted areas and it doesn't hold up to heat in sweat in certain conditions.  I wore my shirt on a very long road trip in a car with no ac sitting in the sunny window.  Where the shirt was wrinkled the paint stuck together.  I think this is a pretty easy way to paint a t-shirt, especially if you are making them for a specific event and don't plan on sweating in a car alllllll day.

Shirt number 3 had it's own challenges. I actually went and bought this shirt because I wanted a moisture wicking tank top (simply because that's the kind of shirt I want to do burpees in, lol). What I didn't think about at the time was color of the shirt vs color of the heart.  Duh, blue or green would have been a better choice.  So I ended up doing everything in white. I wasn't sure if I would have enough paint so I left the heart for last.  And I did run out of paint.  As it turns out the second kind of paint I used let the pink through a little more giving it a slightly different color.  Sticky vinyl stencils don't work as well on the slick fabric.  The B of burpees is an example of where it lifted. I still love this shirt and work out in quite often.

These next shirts I made :-) 

The give blood t-shirt is a regular old Fruit of the Loom t-shirt in neon yellow.  I made these stencils with my Cricut and Freezer paper.  It worked great! I wasn't sure about the whole freezer paper thing but it worked like a charm and it's so much cheaper then vinyl.  The paint is a combination of spray paint and acrylic craft paint.

 And finally the 4th of July tank! This one was all over face book so I decided to give it a try.  The blue is metallic blue spray paint, the red is acyclic craft paint.  This has done great in washing machine and the dryer :-)

 There are so many cool ideas out there and so many different ways to paint things.  Hopefully this has inspired you to make a t-shirt too!

Back to Blogging

To pass the time while waiting to go to work I started to brows the many blogs I follow and I stumbled across this post from A Dose of Page because knee socks are cool it's on compression socks and she is giving away a pair! I want some so bad but they are so dang expensive I haven't invested in a pair. I entered the drawing (even though I don't have the best of luck at winning things) and I'm crossing my fingers I just might win a pair!

Long Time, No Blog: Post Move Check In

Hello everyone!

It's been way too long.  I have missed blogging and of course having things to blog about.  Life is starting to settle out here, or maybe I'm just adapting to the new pace of life.  I'm not sure.

The last time I posted was before our household goods were packed and moved.  That feels like forever ago, and yesterday all at the same time.

That was my first military move, and no matter how many people describe it to you, and no matter how many blogs you read there is just no way to prepare for the craziness.

I was at work when everything was packed, that may or may not have been a good thing. Even if I was home I could not have controlled how things were packed, but at the same time when they packed my delicate hand made guitar shelf I could have said hey that's fragile!  Even so not many things were broken and most that were I was able to repair.  I still wonder if they would have packed some of craft paints and candles.  They packed things with batteries in them and I was told they wouldn't do that.

Getting to California wasn't bad.  We have made the trip so many times now we just hit the road, took our time, and arrived 4 days later.

The hard part was unpacking! It is true they will pack shoes and plates in the same box! It's really difficult when more then half of your stuff has to stay in storage. The only thing you can do is open and unpack every single box and then repack the stuff for storage.  This process didn't go as well as I would have liked, I'm still thinking of things I would like out of a box, but finding one item in a pile of boxes is just not worth it.

There are somethings we are missing, and it's all decor.  I was really upset about this because they are all hand made items that cannot be replaced.  The big M, the Louisiana flag mirror, photos left in frames. None of it is of high monetary value, but none of it can be replaced either. I'm sure someday I will get over it, and might even try to remake some of the items, but until then I'll feel a little sad.

Now that we are in California and settled into our new house, we are realizing that it's not gonna be a good fit for us long term, it's affordable but too small and good 2/3 of our stuff is in boxes.  That means another move is in our future.  When I don't know for sure but probably sooner then I would like.  I mean really who is fan of packing and carrying heavy boxes.

I've managed to squeeze in a few projects this summer and I hope to post about those soon!