Busy week, no posts

I've not posted this week as much as usual because I've been very busy.  I'll be back next week though!  Stay tuned next week for the top posts from April, a new tutorial, and a tasty new recipe.
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Book Review: John Shaw's Guide to Digital Nature Photography



I have always loved looking at pictures of nature.  I used to collect Ansel Adams prints because his pictures were so beautiful.  I would look forward to copies of National Geographic showing up in our mailbox so I could see the pictures that those talented photographers would take to share with us readers, so we could have an inkling of what it was like to travel to new places.  Pictures of mountains, waterfalls, fields of flowers, towering rocks, tree frogs in the rainforest, sea turtles swimming in the ocean, fields of wheat rippling in the wind and ocean waves crashing against the sand have always put me in awe of this wonderful world that we live in.
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Cheerful Birdhouse

I was recently at the local DI thrift store and found a little wood birdhouse.  It is definitely too small to use as a real birdhouse, but it is the perfect size for a cute decoration.  I bought this birdhouse for .50 at the thrift store.  If you buy them at the craft store they are just $1.00, so I didn't save a ton, but every little bit helps.

I decided to decorate this birdhouse in a yellow color.  I wanted it to be light, bright, sunny and cheerful.

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Rainbow Fruit Salad

I love spring and summer when fruit and vegetables are in season.  Everything tastes fresh and full of flavor.  When I went to the store the other day, the kiwis were ripe, the mangoes were soft, the strawberries smelled wonderful, and I couldn't resist buying them to make a colorful rainbow fruit salad.

easy and delicious fruit salad made with a rainbow of fresh fruits

Fruit salad is refreshing, tasty, and feeds a lot of people. It was the perfect dish to bring to the first of the social BBQ's we will go to this year. The empty bowl at the end of the night was a telling sign that people loved it!
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I Love To See The Temple


When I was almost 17 years old, two young missionaries from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (sometimes called LDS or Mormon) knocked on our door and taught my family about the gospel.  I had been going to churches with friends that summer, but didn't feel comfortable at any of them.  When the missionaries talked about Jesus and a Father in Heaven, I felt so strongly that I wanted to know more.  When we attended church, I felt welcomed and like I was in the right place.  I was baptized a member of the church at the end of the summer.  One of the things that touched my heart so strongly when the missionaries were teaching us, was when they talked about how this life isn't the end for us, that we can see our family members again in Heaven.  Coming from a home where I never knew my mother because she died when I was barely 2 years old, that meant a lot.  When I learned more about how families could be together forever when united with each other and Heavenly Father in the temples, I knew that was my goal. I love the gospel of Jesus Christ and try every day to be more like my Savior.

For this post I decided to share some of the pictures of temples that I have visited over the past two or three years.  I hope you enjoy them!

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ENDED - Mother's Day Favorite Things Giveaway

On Mother's Day I generally sleep in while my family makes me some toast and fruit salad.  Then I get to snuggle with my sweet girls for a while before we go to church.  After church I like to lay in bed, read a book or magazine, rest some more, paint my nails, and have a foot massage with nice smelling lotion.


Don't we all love it when we are pampered a little bit?  What better way to celebrate Mother's Day than to have these great items to pamper yourself, or to pamper that special person in your life?  I'm excited to share with you some of my favorite items.  Enter the giveaway below for your chance to win this great selection of pampering products worth over $50! After entering my giveaway, don't forget to visit the other 9 blogs for a chance to win their great items too!

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My Favorite Guacamole

recipe guacamole mexican food cinco de mayo dip chips

Guacamole is pretty popular at our house.  We like to snack on guacamole with chips, top our Tuesday Tacos with it, and put a generous layer of it in my 7-Layer Dip.

When we go to a new Mexican restaurant, I know I will like the place if the guacamole is tasty.  I've never met a store bought guacamole that I've liked, so I make my own.  Here's the recipe for my favorite guacamole.

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Heaven's A Little Closer In A Home - Art Journal Page


I have been wanting to make an art journal page ever since I posted about ideas back in February (you can find that link here).  I went back and forth about what I wanted my topic to be.  As I was looking through my items, I knew that I wanted to focus on family or home.  Then I decided that it would be great to have an artistic memory to celebrate the fact that we officially bought our home!
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Capitol Reef National Park


During Spring Break last week, we took an overnight trip down to Capitol Reef National Park.  Each spring or summer I make a list of fun things for us to do as a family.  Visiting Capitol Reef has been on that list for the past 4 years.  I'm so glad that we were finally able to make the trip down there.  It was so fun and I loved showing our girls how beautiful this wonderful world is.
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Thrifty Finds: Super Cute Owl Sheet

It was Spring Break for my kiddos this past week and we had lots of fun seeing friends, traveling, and going to the movies.  They were good enough to tag along with me while I went to the thrift store.

Usually when I go to the thrift store, I stick to my 2 main areas of the store - crafts and books.  My girls wanted to look at the toys, so while they were hunting through the piles of toys I looked at the sheets that are at the end of the toy row.  I wasn't really thinking that I would find anything of interest.  Then I saw the cutest twin top sheet that had owls on it!
As you can tell from my logo on this page, my Facebook thumbnail and my boards on Pinterest, I really like cute owls.  So I bought this top sheet for $3.  That is probably the most that I have spent on one item of my thrifty finds ever.  But I reasoned that if I would have bought the same amount of fabric at a fabric store, it would have been about $28 or more.

This was just too cute to pass up.  I'm planning on using it to make some tooth fairy pillows or even some stuffed owls.  Click HERE to see what I ended up using this fabric for.

I have tons of ideas pinned that I could start working on. Check out some of my owl ideas on my Pinterest board and let me know which ones you like the best.
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Tasty Vegetable Beef Soup

This year, most of our winter here in Utah was pretty mild.  We had some really nice weather and then last week it got cold again.  When we have cooler weather my thoughts always turn to nice, warm, soothing soup.  To be honest, I enjoy eating soup any time of year, but especially the Fall through the Spring.  I decided to share this tasty recipe.  

The great thing about soup that is mostly vegetables is that you can tailor it to your own taste. Add whichever ones you find to your liking.

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Beautiful Ombre Bird Feeder

A few years ago we moved into our house and noticed how many birds lived in our neighborhood.  My girls love to see animals, so we bought a bird feeder that they could fill and watch the birds.  After 2 1/2 years, I decided to give the bird feeder a much needed update.


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15 DIY Craft Supply Organization Ideas

Sometimes as a crafter, your supplies may have a tendency to take over. Having your craft supplies organized is a must if you want to keep a clean area. These DIY ideas on how to organize your craft supplies will help you keep a clean (and possibly sane) crafting area.



There are lots of great items you can buy at stores to help with the organization of your supplies. Some of the ideas I am sharing with you today start out with those items, then you add a little bit DIY to make them better. Some of the ideas are upcycles of materials you have lying around in your home. I hope you find these oganizational ideas useful!
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Craft Supplies: Canvas Paper

Usually on Mondays I post my Thrift Store Find for the week.  Sometimes I show the items I've bought, and sometimes I show what I've made with those items.  This week I wanted to share a great deal I found at JoAnn's.
I was up at JoAnn's shopping for some of the supplies for the Scrabble Tile Pendants that I wrote about last week. I decided to do a little wandering while I was there.  I found the section where they had discounted materials and ran across these 5x7 Canvas Paper Artists Pads. It has 6 sheets of canvas paper and it was clearanced to .50!  They had a selection of about 5 different kinds of pads.  I think I'll go back this week and see if they still have the other kinds.

I think these would be great for summer art projects for my girls.  They love to work on paintings while I'm working on my different projects.
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DIY Scrabble Tile Pendant




I had quite a few Scrabble tiles left over from the Scrabble Tile Coasters I made (see here) a few weeks ago, so I decided that I wanted to try to make these cute pendants.

Supplies needed:
Scrabble tiles
scrapbook papers
scissors
sandpaper
stickers
Mod Podge
Mod Podge Dimensional Magic or Diamond Glaze
Super Glue for Crafts
silver bails

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Popular Posts in March

Here are my most visited posts from the past month.  It's nice to keep track of what is interesting to my readers.  That way I can think up more things that I hope you will like!

I loved my Owl Family painting.  It was actually the first project that I just thought up on my own, without the help of Pinterest or hearing about another fun craft from someone else.  It was the most fun for me because I was being genuinely creative.  I love those owls and am looking for the perfect frame for them!

People seemed to be as excited to read about Mixed Media art as I was to learn about it.  I have to admit that I have tried a project and it didn't come out how I imagined it.  I'm going to keep trying though!

My Top 6 Craft Room ideas post was so fun to put together.  Looking at all the different craft rooms and dreaming about what I would want for a room on my own was a highlight of my week.

My Scrabble Tile Coasters turned out so cute and I'm glad that my friend likes them.  It seems like other people like the idea too!  I can't wait to make some more!

Thanks for reading along with me in March.  I hope that you like my posts in April too.  I have quite a few neat ideas.  I've got a cute bird feeder makeover, a recipe for one of my favorite snacks, another fun Scrabble Tile craft, photos I've taken of some of my favorite buildings, and lots more!

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