My One Little Word (#OLW) for 2015 and a Free Printable

Is it too late to be discussing New Years Resolutions? (Happy New Year, BTW!) It's still January, so it counts, right?

I've seen the idea of choosing One Little Word to focus on for the year floating around bloggy-land. I love it. So I jumped on board. As I thought about it, and the word that kept coming back to me was:

patience

I feel like if I practice having more patience everyday so many other things will fall into place for me. Our home will be happier, we'll love each other and laugh more, and I'll be more accepting of the person I am or am trying to become.

I had always thought of myself as a patient person, up until that moment I had my first child and became a mother. It is so much easier to be patient when your focus is on only yourself. Once you throw others into the mix, it becomes more complicated and patience is stretched and wears thin quicker. So... to aid myself in my journey towards more patience this year I put together a print to hang in a predominant area in our home, that I will see multiple times a day, in the hopes of helping me to settle down and practice more patience.

I spend a great deal of my day between the kitchen and living room, so that is where I hung up the print. I also put up a picture of our family, and plan to put up more pictures of my girls. If I see adorable happy pictures of them, I'm more likely to soften a bit and be more patient, right? That's what I hope at least. :)

I want to share the print with YOU! Click the image above, or follow this link to download your own 8x10 copy. I also resized it for 5x7 or 4x6 if you'd prefer smaller.

What is your One Little Word for the New Year? What are your goals?

Printable | Survival Bracelet Thank You Cards

Kyle and I keep Valentine's Day pretty simple. I still wanted to do something small for him. Just a little something to say, I was thinking about you. I love you... Happy Valentine's Day. Kyle has mentioned a few times that he would like a paracord bracelet. So, that is what I gave him.   

But, wait! What is paracord? Ok, so maybe you are awesome and know exactly what paracord is. Or maybe you are still awesome, but are more like me and have no idea what it is. I didn't know until Kyle pointed it out to me a few months ago. Paracord is nylon cord used in parachutes. It is durable cord that can be used for many purposes. The paracord bracelet is cord wrapped around itself, fastened by a buckle. When unwound it provides for cord to be used when you really need it. It's a way to have some cord on you at all times, like when you are outdoors hiking or camping or whatever. Clever, eh?

After making Hailey's dinosaur Valentine cards, I was in a punny mood. I created a punny Valentine's card to go along with my gift. But, since Valentine's Day is gone for another year, I decided to slightly change it up to be a thank you card. And of course, I'm sharing it with you!

Click on the image below to download a set of paracord thank you cards.

There are four pages in the file, one for each color, with four cards per page. Print the cards out on cardstock, cut them out, and then using an X-acto knife cut along the dotted lines to cut out the holes to slip the bracelet through.

Recent Posts:


Like it? Pin it! | Follow me on Pinterest | Google + | Bloglovin'

Please note that this post contains affiliate links.

Free Printable: Dinosaur Valentines

Admittedly, Valentine's Day is not one of my favorite holidays. It's ok... I know it's fun for kids, so I might try to come up with something special and fun to do with my girls on Valentine's Day. But beyond that, I really just don't get into it. I'll play along, but I don't go all out. And I don't expect Kyle to either. I'd rather do something more extravagant for our anniversary, a day just for us.

That being said, I made some valentine's for Hailey to hand out to her classmates in preschool. The big Valentine's Day party is next week, of course, and she needs valentines to share! I do remember in elementary school having fun spending the time writing my name on them, packaging them up, and sharing them with my classmates. I thought Hailey would enjoy the same, so I elected her to help me assemble some awesome dino valentines.

I grabbed our two dinosaurs, (Yes, we only have two. I think we need to add a few more, they need friends.) and did a little photoshoot. Belle even made an appearance. Lucky us!

I took those pictures into photoshop, did a little photoshop magic and cut the dinosaurs out. I brought them into Illustrator and being playing and creating.

One thing I knew I wanted was Hailey's cute handwritten name on them. So, I had Hailey write her name with a sharpie on a piece of paper for me. I then scanned it into the computer and did some quick photoshop cropping and brought that image into Illustrator as well.

When the design was finished, we printed the cards out on cardstock. Hailey helped me cut the cards out and round the corners- this she loved. We picked up some dinosaur fruit snacks at the store and taped the cards onto the fruit snacks. And now her valentines are ready and waiting for the big day!

Look! Even the dinos like them.

They are already trying to rip into the fruit snacks. Looks like we will have to hide them until next week! :)

Looking for some valentines of your own? Here, try ours. Click on each of the images below to download a PDF file with 8 valentines per page.

Linked up at: the36thavenue.com, blog.peekaboopatternshop.com, roubinek.net

First Birthday Cupcake Toppers

I think parties are fun. Who doesn't? Party pooper... In college we threw some fun parties, like a fish themed birthday party for our goldfish. Yes, our goldfish actually made it to his birthday. He was a trooper of a fish. Seriously. It was a sad day when he died. We had a funeral.

But I digress...

I really don't go all out for parties. I'm not a big party planner. I think themed parties are fun. But they can get expensive! It adds up quick. But, I feel like when it's your very first birthday you deserve a little something special. Even if it's just a few streamers, a pile of balloons, a special birthday shirt, and a fancy topper on your cupcake.

After screen printing Keira's birthday shirt, I used the same design to make some cupcake toppers. I changed the wording from I'M #1 to KEIRA IS #1.

 I Love them. That's right, with a capital L. I made a birthday poster for my little girl and even put one on there too.

Want to make some? I made a file with five different colors, purple, orange, green, blue, and red. I took off the name, so they just say #1. I assume most anyone else wanting to use them won't be throwing a party for a little girl named Keira. Keira isn't that popular of a name. :)

Print the file out on cardstock, cut the fingers out, and tape a toothpick to the back. That's it!

Click on the image to download the file, or follow this link.

[Printable] 4x6 Thank You Cards

We had a baby girl join our family two months ago, yesterday. Yay! We had many people help us out by providing meals and giving gifts to baby girl and her sister. We really feel so blessed to have such great friends and family.

Of course I want to thank each of them for what they have done for us. I finally made some thank you cards to mail out. I feel pretty good that I have them done after just two months. With Hailey, our oldest, I didn’t mail anything out until she was 5 months old! Better late than never, eh?



The cards are sized 4x6. They are printed on the front, and blank on the back so I can write a message. I am having them printed at my old home, the copy center at BYU in Provo, UT. I worked there for a total of about 6 1/2 years (off and on a little bit, part-time as a student and later full-time as a non-student). I seriously miss the copy center some days. I have an odd attachment to copy machines and printers.

ANYWAY… I thought I’d share the fruits of my labor with you. Lucky you! :) The file is an 8.5x11 PDF with two 4x6 cards per page (2-up), complete with bleeds and crop marks. Click on the image below to be taken to Google Drive where you can download the file.

Enjoy! And thank you for following along with me!