American Crafters

Heyy followers! I got some great news this morning, I made it in the top 15 of the American Crafter competition!

Every week I'll be entering in a new craft for the competition so EVERYONE needs to go check it out!!
This weeks theme is Valentines Day!


I am about to start my craft so wish me luck!!

Nursery Projects!!

I am FINALLY done with my nursery, and only 32 more days until my Kinsley is here!!
So here are some updated pictures of my nursery and a few small tutorials on how I did somethings!

I got this cute birdcage 50% off at Hobby Lobby a few weeks ago, and bought that cute little bird to go inside of it!!

Those are some of the crosses I spray painted pink!!

That super cute bow holder I made just a few days ago!! SUPER easy!

Just bought an old frame from the resale store down the street and took out the middle in it!

Then I painted the frame blue (it was too cold outside to spray paint), and I used a stapler and stapled the chicken wire to the back of the frame!

Most of these bows just clipped on and the ones that didn't I clipped on with a clothes pin!

Here's a closer look!

Here is a picture of the diaper wreath I made for the outside of the nursery door!

 
If you haven't made one of these, they are super easy to make!!
Just get a wire wreath, diapers, tulle, and ribbon!
Wrap the diaper around the wreath and tie a ribbon around it!
Then I took the tool and weaved it in through each diaper, I also used the pink tulle to make the bow for the top of the wreath!!
I got the K from Hobby Lobby awhile back and just hung it by a piece of ribbon as well!
 
 
That's all the pictures I took for now! I'll upload some more later!!
I'm just glad its all coming together so perfectly!
Now I just need a little girl to put in that room!!!

Guest Post!!! Making things with Chalk Paint!!

Heyyy followers! I am so happy to have Miss Madigan with us today to show you these awesome Chalk Paint ideas!!! I absolutely love them!!!

Hello Being Grown Up readers!

I am Madigan and I blog over at Madigan Made. I enjoy sharing simple ideas for crafts, recipes and decor with my readers. 

 

I was flattered that Ashley asked me to guest post over here. For this post, I wanted to share with you two chalkboard ideas.

I love chalkboard paint!

First, I wanted to show you these little colorful frames. They were a quick project I made for a craft fair I went to last November.

I picked up several small frames on clearance and spray painted the frames in fun colors. Then, I sprayed the glass in each frame with a few coats of chalkboard paint. (Tip: follow the paint directions carefully for curing time and how to 'season' the board with chalk before use.)

The frames felt like they still needed something, so I adhered coordinating paper to the back of flat glass gems (Read this post for tips how). I glued the gems to the corners.

I thought they were kinda cute.  You could display a fun quote or message somewhere (kitchen, bedroom, office etc).  

I also made a large chalkboard for my kitchen in the dining area. I love having a great quote near me while I work in that room.

I change the chalkboard quote (and decorations) out once a month and share it with my readers.

 

This BIG chalkboard is by far one of my favorite projects from the past year.  If you wanted more details about the chalkboard and monthly changes, read this post.

Thanks so much, Ashley, for the invite to post here!

Smiles,

Madigan

Isn't she amazing readers?! Those are the cutest ideas ever! I just made some and I plan to post some pictures here soon when my paint finishes drying!!! Be sure to go check out her blog!!

Million Dollar Spaghetti

Million Dollar Spaghetti is my family's FAVORITE meal, so I thought I would share it with all of you!!

Ingredients

1 lb. of Ground Beef

1 can of Spaghetti Sauce

8 oz of Cream Cheese

1/4 cup of Sour Cream
1/2 lb. of Cottage Cheese
Whole Stick of Butter
8 oz. of Noodles
Bag of Sharp Chedder Cheese

First: Go ahead and put your over on 350! Boil those noodles!! While they are boiling go ahead and mix up the cream cheese, sour cream and cottage cheese!!

Make sure that it is mixed up VERY well!

Then.. go ahead and cook that meat!

 
Make sure its good and brown and drain it!
Then pour your spaghetti sauce over it!

 

Take a few slices of your butter and put them in the bottom of your casserole dish,

Then layer HALF of the noodles in the bottom of the dish!

Pour that nicely mixed up creamy mixture on top of the noodles.

and SPREAAAAAD it all over!

Then add the rest of your noodles and put a few slices of butter on top of those noodles.

Now pour the red sauce and meat on top!

and once again SPREEAAAAD

Now place that awesome casserole in your oven for 30 minutes!

After those 30 minutes take the dish out and pour some chedder cheese on the top and put it back in the oven for 15 minutes!

Then your DONE!

Now I'm awful and didn't take a finished project picture, SORRY!

But the amazing taste will make up for it:)

Baby Shower #1

I have been a bad blogger lately and haven't posted at all this week!!

Sorry guys:(

I started back to school last Friday, and I have been trying to prepare myself for this semester,

and trying to get my nursery finished before my sweet girl comes!!!

My doctor set my C-section date for March 1!!!!

My first babyshower was a week ago, and it was so much fun!

I have this weird anxiety thing, and opening presents in front of people FREAKS me out.

It makes me so nervous, its the silliest thing!

To my advantage God decided to make my babyshower day a snow day!

It started snowing RIGHT when I started opening my presents, so after I would open someone's present they would leave so they could get home before the weather got bad!

This helped so much, Thank You Jesus!



This is my BEAUTIFUL cake that my best friend Christina got from Blue Cake Company in Little Rock, AR. They did such an awesome job! They even made it my favorite.. Italian Cream Cake:):)

Here is my cool diaper cake, Mrs. Mary and Nichole made!!

They did a great job!

This is my best friend Kelsea, she threw the shower!

She is explaining the diaper game haha she smashed 2 different candy bars in the diaper and everyone had to pass it around and guess what the candy bars were!

So this is a little blurry!

But I wanted all the moms to see this! It's a word scramble!!

Try to figure out some of those words, they were SO hard!

This is my beautiful best pregnant friend Kara:) She's due exactly 2 weeks after me!

Can you see what that bib says!? "Star of Mommy's Blog"

How funny is that!?!

Kinsley will definately be wearing that bib alot on this blog!

My next shower is this Saturday at my house so I have to go clean now:(

Hope you guys are having an awesome week!

I promise I'll try not to ever go this long without posting again:)

CSN GIVEAWAY!!!

Ever heard of CSN stores!? CSN Stores have over 200 online stores where you can find anything you need/want whether it be swingsets, fitness equipment, home decor, or even cute cookware!

How much fun the kids could have on one of these!!

Here's some of their wall art! How stinkin cute!!

Check out this Paula Deen Porcelain Nonstick 12 piece cook set!

I absolutely love these red cooking appliances!

Want any of this awesome stuff?

YOU could win it!

CSN Stores is giving one of my lucky readers a $15 credit to any of their stores!

A few of their stores are http://www.allmodern.com/ , http://www.cookware.com/ , http://www.swingsetsandmore.com/ , and so many more!

MANDATORY ENTRY

 (THIS MUST BE DONE IN ORDER FOR ANY EXTRA ENTRY TO COUNT)

Become a follower of Being Grown Up and leave me a comment telling me you are a follower!

MAKE SURE YOU LEAVE YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS SO I CAN CONTACT YOU IF YOU WIN!

1 EXTRA ENTRY

Follow @CSNstores on Twitter and Tweet about this giveaway! Then leave me a comment letting me know you did this!

Tweet something like "Heyy @CSNstores is giving away $15 over @ashkaitlin24 blog!! Come enter at http://www.ashleykaitlin.blogspot.com/

This giveaway will end on  Wednesday, January 19th at MIDNIGHT Central Time.

The winner will be choosen at random using http://www.random.org/

After the winner is picked I will send you an email and you will have 48 hours to redeem your prize, and if its not redeemed than I will pick another winner!!

DON'T FORGET to leave your email address with your comment so I can contact you!

GOOD LUCK:):)



First Blog Swap With Kassi From Truly Lovely!!!

Hey, hey all you lovely Being Grown Up followers!!

WAIT!!!

Please don't say,

"Oh, it's just a guest blogger... I'm not getting my Ashley fix today..."

then skim over my guest post and move on through your blog roll...

'Cause that would make me SO sad!

I am real excited to be here and so thrilled to meet the lovelies that follow Miss Ashley, 'cause really, SHE'S awesome so you all must be awesome too!!! So please, stay awhile and let's get to know each other! ;)

I am Kassi! A face behind the blog, Truly Lovely!

I say 'A face' because my sister, Kayli is the other face... haha!

I love Miss Ashley and her 'growing up' antics here at Being Grown Up, so I am stoked to be blog swapping with her today!

So a little bit about me... I am WAY too much addicted to blogging and the blogging world... I sell Scentsy... I'm in the process of planning my wedding and purchasing my first house with my mister... My day job is Marketing Director for an accounting software... And I like dots... Alot...

Yep, that's me!

At Truly Lovely, my sister and I...

Mostly I 'cause the sister is in the middle of her senior year of high school... And let's face it... there's some pressing issues she's gotta deal with there... Like what to do after high school!!

But I digress...

Anyway... we post on the lovelies of life! Anything and everything that we happen to think is 'Truly Lovely'! Thus the title!

What we find to be Truly Lovely include crafting projects... Like these super easy, but still super cute Chalkboard Canisters.

Or this sweet Train Case Embellishment!!

Sometimes the things we find to be Truly Lovely are yummy treats like these Mint Oreo Brownies!

And because we like sharing things and meeting new lovelies like YOU... You're apt to get a random post sharing facts about us, giving something lovely away, or sharing our opinions on any random product!

So that's a little bit about us!!

I hope you'll check out our blog and if you like what you see you can get an (almost) daily dose of two fun ladies, Kassi and Kayli, just by clicking follow!

If you're popping over to Being Grown Up from Truly Lovely, I'm sure Miss Ashley would love a new follower too!

And we love you guys, so we know she will!!

Share the comment and following love new friends!!!

Hope to see you around again soon!!!

Isn't she the best!? If you haven't checked out her blog already, go do it!!

Thanks so much for coming and visiting with my crowd today Kassi!!

Hopefully we will be seeing you again SOON:)

Life is GOOD

Today/yesterday has been of the best days and don't worry I am going to tell you ALL about it! 

Anytime that Arkansas gets snow, EVERYONE freaks out and usually everything closes!!

My very best guy friend Chris was supposed to leave for the military yesterday,

BUT due to all of our snow his flight got cancelled and he will be here for another week! yayy!

Sadly he won't be here when Miss Kinsley is born but she will love her Uncle Chris so very much when he returns!!

So I got to spend my snow day with him yesterday and today, what a blessing it has been!

Yesterday we all just laid around and watched movies all day and cooked some yummy Million Dollar Spaghetti for dinner, I plan on blogging about that recipe here soon so everyone can enjoy the yumminess and THOUSANDS of calories it is!!

I was also SO lucky to have Amy come and guest post for me yesterday, weren't her headbands the CUTEST thing!? If you haven't checked out her blog yet, you should definately make that a priority!

Also Crafterminds was yesterday, if you haven't checked that out yet, come join us on Twitter next Monday at 3:00 pm Central Time! Its so much fun chatting with other bloggers about everything!

After the chats I always get in my "blog" mood, so I started making an inspirational notebook!!

I haven't gotten too far on it yet, but just making time to make one is nice and relaxing!

Before I went to bed last night I realized that Jana from Giggles, Glitz, and Glam had featured my blog!

I join her linky parties every week and just love them!!

So today... I got up and auditioned for American Crafters

I love bloggers like Amy at http://www.naptimecrafters.blogspot.com/ that take the time to do fun competitions like this!!If you haven't linked up already, GO DO IT!Then one of my favorite bloggy friends Kassi at Truly Lovely awarded me with the Stylish Blogger Award!! 



How sweet is that!?! I now have to pick some ladies to give this button out too:) Maybe you'll be the lucky one! I also am SO very excited about my blogswap with Kassi on Thursday, everyone be sure to check out our blogs!!Want another reason why my life is so good??? Here is goes! My FIRST baby shower was on Sunday, and yes I will be blogging about that here soon, and I got a Pack and Play from my mom!! They sold her the wrong one so today when the roads were cleared up, me and Chris went to go exchange it! I got the Graco Elyse and it is absolutely BEAUTIFUL! I am so very excited that Miss Kinsley is almost here I can hardly stand it!!! I already set it up and I REFUSE to put it away until after she is here! Just if you were wondering I only have 47 days left!! ahhhhh:):)Also I was so very happy when I read my comment from Camilla at http://www.rosyredbuttons.blogspot.com/ everyone needs to go check out her blog tomorrow, she is going to be featuring my Mini Window Dividers!!Enough of my good day, tell me all about yours! One of my favorite parts of blogging is reading all of the comments!!You guys make my day all the time:) Thanks!! 

Making a Signature for Your Blog!!!

Okay so maybe I'm just not very smart, but I have been trying to figure out how to make a signature for my blog for awhile now!!

I was reading somethings on The Blog Guidebook and found a website that will make my signature for me!!

If you have never read The Blog Guidebook you should DEFINATELY go look at it!!

And if you are a dummy like me and you need a signature than check out http://www.mylivesignature.com/

GUEST PROJECT-- Make Feather Headbands with Amy!!

Hi! My name is Amy and I'm so excited to be guest blogging on Ashley's blog today! I am 31, am married and have two beautiful children. We live in Central Indiana (I've been a Hoosier my whole life) and I work as the Sr. Pastor's assistant at our church. I've been creative my whole life, whether that be scrapbooking or jewelry making or sewing - all of which started in High School and then laid dormant for a while. I am the owner and designer at amycornwell.com, I love to create just about anything, so that means that my blog is a mix of all things creative. Sometimes I have sewing tutorials, sometimes jewelry posts, sometimes recipes and sometimes pictures of my family. I'd love for you to take a peek when you get a chance. It truly is a lifestyle blog of all that I'm passionate about. I love to inspire others to create and hopefully my tutorial today will inspire you to create something beautiful!


Today I'm going to teach you how to make this super cute feather headband. It's really easy and costs about $5 to make with many supplies left for other projects! Here's what you need (picture 1 below):



- 1/2 yard black tulle (you'll have lots left)

- black feathers

- black wire-wrapped bead components

- crystal buttons

- felt

- plain headband

- scissors

- glue gun

- wooden skewer or stick

To start, cut two ovals of the same size out of the black felt in the size that you want your focal piece to be (picture 2). Cut a few of the feathers off and glue them to the felt, using the skewer to press it down (picture 3). Trust me, you'll be happy you used the skewer and not your fingers - ouch! Cut a bunch of tulle circles, about 1 1/2" in size. You'll be taking about 3 circles, folding them in half twice making the shape in picture 4.

Glue those tulle pieces on in a random fashion, being sure to press well with the skewer so that the hot glue goes through all of the layers (pictures 5/6). Add a beaded component, cutting off the extra wire at the bottom (picture 7). Keep adding tulle to a little farther than the top half, making sure that you do some sideways on the edges (picture 8).

Add a few extra feathers and another beaded component to lay the feathers down a little (picture 9). Keep adding tulle until you get to the bottom, then add some tulle upside down (picture 10). You'll have a funky spot of glue where all of the tulle comes together, but that's okay (picture 11). Glue on a few crystal buttons and we're almost done (picture 12)!

Here is where you learn from my mistakes. I just guesstimated on where the piece should go on the headband and glued it on. Don't do that! I also had the feathers going up and I looked like a bird. So I took it apart (cutting and pulling with all of my might since the hot glue had already set) and started over. I decided to put it farther down the side and the feathers going down so it's much better. Lesson learned: place it on your head as a test BEFORE you glue it down! Add a dollop or line of glue on the back of the felt and attach the headband (picture 13). Then add a ton of glue to the felt and attach the second oval to the top of it (pictures 14/15). ALL DONE!

I love this headband! I wasn't too sure once I started how it would turn out but it looks so cute on. I can't wait for date night now! Thanks so much, Ashley, for letting me hijack your blog today. I hope you all will stop over to my blog for a peek!

Thanks SO much Amy! These Feather Headbands are super cute and not hard to make at all!!! Amy has an awesome blog at http://www.amycornwell.blogspot.com/ go check her out:)