My Dad

My dad is the most remarkable man I know.
My mom is the most remarkable woman I know.

Together they make the perfect couple.
They have set the perfect example of how I want my marriage to be.

How to treat others.

How to live your life. 

My dad passed away unexpectedly on October 21st, 2011, 

a week after celebrating his 60th birthday.

It has been a hard couple of weeks.

I am comforted knowing that I will see him again someday. 

I'm grateful this life is not the end.

BUT it is still hard to live without him in the meantime:(

I love you dad!

Our Baby Boy has arrived!

Our sweet baby boy is HERE & I can't get enough of him! We even chose a name finally...

Carden Robert arrived on July 3rd

And, YES...

we made it to my brother's wedding...barely.

He was 4 days old!

We are officially a family of 5 & who knows when I will have time to blog again??? ;)

Family Tree

For Christmas this year my sister-in-law, Heidi, gave our mother-in-law, a BEAUTIFUL FAMILY TREE! She used this template from Martha Stewart's website...

I decided I wanted to make one for my mom's birthday this year & googled "Family Trees" and found SEVERAL options! I fell in love with this SPLIT FAMILY TREE idea and knew that since my brother Rob is an amazing CUSTOM FRAMER, he would be able to frame it just how I wanted!

 I googled "Vinyl Family Trees" and found the following split image. If it hadn't have been split, I could have easily Cropped the image in half if needed. I imported this image into my MAKE THE CUT program & then adjusted it slightly. I made the leaves the size I wanted, added some leaves to give me the amount of generations I wanted & added some falling leaves for their kids.

After I got it just the way I wanted, I printed it out on Chocolate Brown Vinyl. I also added a place for my parent's names at the base of the Trunk & 7 falling leaves to represent their 7 children's names...

 Then I printed all of the names I needed & made a PATTERN to trace around the names, to get the SHAPE I wanted!

 I used photo adhesive squares to stick my WHITE CARDSTOCK NAMES to the VINYL...

 and then I applied the vinyl to WHITE MAT BOARD, that would later be framed...

 My brother Rob framed it beautifully in a classic brown frame...

 and I LOVE how it turned out. I wanted a MODERN LOOK, but it also serves the purpose to show the genealogy of my family! I think hung side by side, it will look beautiful in my parent's home!

 

 Questions on how I completed this project?? 

Please email me at craftifyit@gmail.com 

Have you ever made a FAMILY TREE? If so, please share the link...I would LOVE to see them!

Please see the sidebar for some of the fun linky parties I am linking to!

Happy Valentine's Day!!!

Hope everyone has a 

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!!!

I feel extra lucky this Valentine's Day...to be married to my very best friend, who I fall in love with more & more every day!

 

 I can't believe I met this guy in KINDERGARTEN!!!

cue: oohing & ahhing ;)

That was over 20 years ago & today we are living a real life fairy tale together!

 

Gratitude

 I'm THANKFUL for this guy...

and this guy...

 and this guy...

Seriously, what would my life be without these 3 in my life!?!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!

Happy October!!!

October 1st...is the start of a WONDERFUL time of year, 

probably my favorite time of year. 

Halloween, Thanksgiving & Christmas all smashed into one season!

This time of year is packed with putting holiday decor up, taking it down & putting new holiday decor up, baking delicious treats, dressing up in costumes, our anniversary, Santa Claus, giving gifts, remembering the true meaning of Christmas & enjoying time with family...

and it all starts with October 1st, my BIRTHDAY!!!

My husband got my hints & got me a jigsaw for my birthday, I can't WAIT to use it & we already have several projects in mind...

You all know I am a SUCKER for homemade gifts, so when I opened this CELEBRATE banner that my Mother-in-Law made me, I was in heaven!

It is ADORABLE, I can't wait to hang it up for birthdays and other fun events & I appreciate the time & talent that went into it, THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!

And of course, I started to decorate for Halloween with some spooky webs...

And my favorite place to change decor is my entry table,

that used to look like THIS 

& normally looks like this...

but for this month, looks like this...

HAPPY OCTOBER!!!

Now...I'm off to do a little more celebrating with my family tonight...

my favorite dessert, pumpkin custard cake with homemade vanilla icecream is on the menu & I can't wait!

...I might just skip straight to dessert;)

Birthday Saw

Whenever my Birthday rolls around each year, I can RARELY think of what I want?? 

My husband always begs to tell him what he should get me, 

but all I usually want is some sort of decoration/home improvement item for the house. 

He told me this year that I'm not allowed to get anything for the house...

I have to think of something I want for ME:)

I thought a lot about it and decided I want a SAW!

He was quite surprised when I told him & asked what in the world I was going to do with a saw???

I told him, "Make stuff !" 

He said, "What in the world are you going to make?"

I said, "Just stuff...you know, cute, crafty things."

He said, "Whatever. I'm just glad you actually want something for you!"

Little does he know, everything I want to make will actually go IN THE HOUSE ;)

So...HOPEFULLY my husband is going to get me a saw next week!

Any suggestions on the saw/power tool you use MOST in your home for Home Improvement projects or Crafty Decor??? 

I'm THINKING I want a jigsaw, but any advice would be GREAT!

Thank you!

I got an award from the IDEA CLOSET 

& another from VERONICA'S CORNER
& one from Life with the Lebeda's

I feel SO honored!

Thank you so much for taking the time to read my blog,
I've met so many wonderful people through blogging & I look forward to meeting many more!

 ------------

Now...to share 10 things about myself & 5 things I don't like...

1. I have 2 adorable boys...3, if you count my husband ;)

2.I LOVE watching TV movies, even though every time I watch one, I wish I hadn't wasted my time watching it!

3. I could eat ice cream every single day...oh, how I wish it was healthy!

4. I have been stung by a scorpion over 10 times...the joys of living in AZ

5. I taught English in China for a semester during College & that is when I discovered my love for teaching

6. I currently teach preschool out of my home and I LOVE it!

7. My husband and I were in the same Kindergarten class...we've known each other for a LONG time!

8. I LOVE to play Volleyball any chance I get.

9. My favorite food is lasagna...I'll even eat it cold.

10. I love CREATING things & like to "knock off" expensive items & make them myself for much cheaper!

5 Things I DO NOT like:

1. When our couch pillows end up all over the ground!

2. Spaghetti

3. Gossip- If you can't say something nice...

4. Doing Laundry

5. Taking Cough Medicine...I literally GAG just thinking about the taste!

What Makes You Feel Beautiful?

Taking a break from my normal "Craftifying" & joining in on this virtual slumber party!

Stop & post about what makes YOU feel beautiful...it will be good for you...I promise.

Pinky promise.


Beth, over at Stories from A to Z is hosting this "virtual slumber party" & this weekend she is giving us the opportunity to share WHAT MAKES US FEEL BEAUTIFUL!

----------------------------------

For me...I'm not the girl who has ever really been comfortable with her physical beauty. I've been overweight since...oh...since I can remember and I think society places a strong link between physical beauty and your waistline.

So for me...I have made myself find ways to FEEL beautiful, despite what a glamour magazine might say about the size of my thighs or this dimples in my cheeks(I wish I was talking about on my face!)

The 1st way is EASY. My FAMILY makes me feel beautiful.

Like the kind of beautiful you can't find anywhere else.

My family makes me feel beautiful...every single day. The kind of beautiful that doesn't come from having my hair done or make-up on. The kind of beautiful that can be felt despite the fact that I am still in my pj's 8 hours after I wake up. The kind of beautiful that can be felt through all of the crumbs and toys scattered throughout my house. These boys outnumber me 3 to 1, but when they look at me...they light up...
and that
is what makes ME feel beautiful.


The 2nd thing that makes me feel beautiful is when I make something else beautiful!
Whether it is painting a room or making window treatments for a bare window or turning a lampshade headed to the garbage, into a fruit bowl for the top of my fridge...I LOVE to make things beautiful. When I create, I feel beautiful. I like to do thing's myself...it gives me a rush. Although there are MANY times where I think it would be a lot easier to just pay someone to do it or go buy something that is already the way I like it, like a lot of the world does...I feel SO GOOD when I accomplish a project myself and that is why I have this blog. To keep track of those things that make me feel good...those things that make me feel...
Beautiful!


And last but not least...when I'm not feeling so beautiful, a good pedicure always does the trick! ;)


Thanks Beth! That was fun...now it is your turn to link up at her party HERE!



Along with this fun slumber party, Beth is hosting my current LARGE CLOCK giveaway--enter now if you haven't! It ends Friday!

Serenity Now

I thought I would join int he fun over at Serenity Now, where you can get to know a little more about the authors of the blogs you read!

Click on the button below for details & to enter your link today.

~How long have you been blogging?

I have been "mommy blogging" for 3 years. I started this creative blog at the end of last summer.

~Why did you start blogging?

My personal blog was started right after my 1st son's birth. I wanted a place to document his life and a place to put all of the pictures I took of him each day! I still continue blogging on that blog and use it as my "family journal".

I started this creative blog right before we bought the home we live in now. We knew it was going to be a LOT of work, as we bought a house that wasn't "our style" & we wanted to document all the work we did, so we could look back at all of our home transformations!

~Tell me about your blog's title. Why did you choose it?

At first I was going to go with a "Home Improvement" name, because it was mostly for our home projects, but I didn't want to limit myself to just drywall projects. I went on a youth retreat last summer & I kept adding "-ify" to random words, where it didn't belong. When I got home, I started telling my husband about all of the things I wanted to "Craftify" in the home we were buying. My husband told said, "That isn't even a word." So I made up a definition and claimed that it was indeed a word! :)

~What is your favorite thing about blogging?

For me, I love to look back on things I have done and have a place to "save" projects that I want to create in the future. I used to see something cute & a month later I couldn't remember where I saw it or what it even looked liked...now I can save it in my blog posts and get to it when I can! I LOVE being inspired by reading other blogs and I have learned a TON from tutorials. Every time I want to try something that I don't know how to do, I just google it until I find a blog tutorial on it!

~If you had to choose one famous person to become your blog's next devoted reader, who would you pick?

I don't really care how "famous" the person is that is reading my blog, I'm mostly just flattered that anyone stops to read it. I created this for me and my family to look back on, but I love meeting new friends in the blogging world and I love when my family and friends leave comments, so I know that they stopped by!

Now it is your turn!!! Take a few minutes to answer the questions on your blog & link back to the party at Serenity Now!