Blog Swap Awesomesauce with J and J Home

I have a treat for you readers today! Jeanne from J and J Home and I are swapping today. She's a doll, and I heart her blog. Seriously, you'll find a ton of inspiration, and she was awesome and saved me some work and linked to my favorites posts of hers down at the bottom. Instead of doing a tutorial swap, we exchanged some random questions.

Hi, I'm here from JandJHome and am so excited to be guest posting here at  Life, Crafts, and Whatever. Jen's blog is one of my daily reads and I love everything about her! We'll start with some questions.


What is your biggest fear/phobia?  Without getting overly emotional here, I would have to say growing old without children.

Were you named after anyone?  I was named after my great grandmother, Jean.  My parents added an ne at the end, which I'm glad they did. 


Who would you choose to play you in a movie? Wow, I have no idea. I am so not a movie person, but I guess I would have to say Julianne Moore, because of her red hair. 


What three people, dead or alive, would you invite to a dinner party? I would definitely invite my grandfather, Javier. I never met him and although he is with my grandmother, Mamama, in heaven, I'd love to see them interacting. She was in such awe of him and lost him way too early.  She was in her 40's. I  would also have my mom there to see how she was shaped by her parents.


Why did you start blogging?  I started blogging as a distraction from major baby making issues, I'm talking almost 5 years worth (see answer number 1). It has been the best decision I've ever made. I have found a whole new passion and love for all things DIY and crafty. 


Any crafts you want to learn/wish you were better at?  I want to learn to paint, draw, etc.  My mom is an art teacher and my dad is an architect turned artist and I have from where to have inherited it from.  I guess I have to give it a try.


So now that you know so much about me, let me show you some of my favorite projects so far. 

My sunburst mirror out of wood shims.  It's huge and I love the rusticness of it among my modern furniture.




  

I made this bench for the foot of my bed using an old coffee table and some wood from Home Depot.
 

Finally, my Ikea hack upholstered headboard is what started a transformation of my master bedroom. 










I'd love for you to stop by JandJHome! I always love new friends.  Thanks Jen for having me here today, you are a total inspiration to me. 

Let's help Austin get a kidney. Do it. Do it!

So, I originally found out about Austin (you can read his story here) thru one of my bloggy BFF's, Kristen over at Who's Watching the Baby. Kristen is super passionate about kids who need transplants, after her sweet boy Adam needed a liver transplant in 2009. After what we went through with Ava, we know how helpless you can feel when your baby needs surgery because of something life threatening. And how much money it costs. It's not just the medical expenses. Things like gas, food, parking garage costs, etc. 

We had so many people help raise money to cover our medical expenses, so we always try to pay it forward.

Crystal from Crystal's Craft Spot is doing a fundraiser to raise funds for Austin's family.

And as an added bonus for donating? Besides the warm, fuzzy feeling of knowing you've helped a sweet boy? Tons and tons of free stuff! 

There are 6 giveaways going on, and 5 of the 6 are valued at over $170 worth of great goodies! I donated a headband or brooch of the winner's choice from my Etsy shop. (I'm participating in Giveaway #2)

Want to know how to get in on the donating awesomeness and have a chance to win more awesomeness? 

How do you enter?

• Donate to Austin, however much you'd like.  (You will donate directly to his COTA website here.)
• For every $2 you donate, it counts as one entry for any of the six prize packages (found in the following posts). For example, if you donate $6, you have three entries. You can enter once on three different prize packages, or you can use all three entries for one prize package.  
• For each entry you qualify for, fill out the form at the bottom of the post of the prize package you want and submit.  
• If you donated an item for the giveaway you are still eligible to enter.  If you happen to win the prize package with your item, you will will all the items except I will draw an additional winner for your donated item only.
• That's it! If you win, you will be REQUIRED to email us the receipt of your donation. This will have your shipping information for us, and will confirm that that you donated and your entry is valid. Without a receipt, you will not win.
• Winners will be chosen via random.org and announced here as well as emailed.

I've already donated. Are you going to? Every $2 helps!

What's on Jen's phone? 3-22-2011

It's Tuesday, sucka. And I need something to distract me from the fact that I'll be in the dentist chair again today at 11am. Putting on the permanent crowns. Yeah, 5 of them. Blah. Let's crank that gas up, mmmkay?

The guidelines.

1. spend the week looking for interesting, funny, cute, special, lovely, ugly, silly, crude (okay maybe not crude), or other worthy pictures. and by that it pretty much means anything.

2. when you find them, snap a shot with your phone.

3. then on tuesday, upload it into your blog.

The older girls were a big help with Ava during their Spring Break. Those girls are so good with her.

On our way back from the park, Arielle gave me a present.

My husband continued being his super sexy self. Nothing sexier than an amazing dad.

The older girls stayed a night at Grandma's house, so hubby and I went on a date to Red Lobster.

Jasper kept Ava company.

We watched the UFC fight where Jon Jones became the youngest champion in history.

We worked with Ava on sitting. Lazy girl!

SOC Sunday- Muffins are bad, mmmkay?

This is my 5 minute Stream of Consciousness Sunday post hosted by all.things.fadra. It’s five minutes of your time and a brain dump. Want to try it? Here are the rules…

    •    Set a timer and write for 5 minutes only.
    •    Write an intro to the post if you want but don’t edit the post. No proofreading or spellchecking. This is writing in the raw.
    •    Publish it somewhere. Anywhere. The back door to your blog if you want. But make it accessible.

Five minutes. Got it. Ready, set, go.

So, I've managed to be talented enough to gain 4 lbs in the past two weeks. Not sure how the hell that happened. I've been eating the same, not working out the same, etc. Which kinda goes against my whole "I'm going to work out for my New Years Resolution" thang.

But one day I was feeling extra muffiny, and it wasn't my period so I wasn't fluffy from that, and I stepped on the scale, and it read 126.8. I'm normally at 123 right on the nose. So how the hell did that happen? And no, I'm not pregnant. I took a test. Okay, two of them. Just good ole extra fluffy. 

I gain weight in my stomach and muffin top. It's amazing how that 4 lb gain can make me go from "super sexy, confident, bad ass chick" to "oh baby, lights off is sexier." I mean, when 4 lbs is the difference between okay and not okay, I'm straddling that line a little too close. 

So again, I'm on a goal to lose weight. For reals this time. Should have just started when I weighed 123, so I didn't have an extra 4 lbs to lose to get back to where I was. I really want to be 118. Okay, 116 would be awesome but 118 would be okay too. And my bloggy bestie Lesley has lost 25 lbs since January. 25 lbs! And here I am, lamenting about having to lose 8-10 lbs.

So I've started writing down everything that I eat, and I look up the calories and write those down too. Holy crap, I eat a lot of crap. Eating for the sake of eating. I won't lie, I enjoy eating. It'd probably be one of my hobbies. I heart food. Like, want to take romantic strolls and have candlelight dinners with it. But I need to know that I'm 30 and that whole "metabolism thang" just ain't what it used to be.

And yes, I know. 4 lbs isn't a big deal. And I'm sure you're thinking that I'm being vain about my looks/weight/whatever and I should STFU. But, I'm 5'4 and normally 123. A 4 lb gain is huge. And completely obvious. And I can only wear solid black so often.

I looked up how many calories I should be eating. To maintain, it's 1890. To lose weight, it's 1495. I hit 1510 on Friday. On Saturday I hit 2205. But there was a UFC fight on, and in a moment of weakness, we ordered Buffalo Wild Wings, which was an extra 600 calories on that day. Oops. 

So I've been working out every day, and actually feeling pretty damn good. Let's just hope it keeps up. Hubby works out 5 days a week, protein shakes for breakfast, eats really well. Blah. Hopefully it'll be motivation to get back to being my super confident self. I'll post a pic of him if you promise not to notice that it'll put me over my 5 minutes. And if hot shirtless men offend you, stop here.

***End of 5 minutes. Oops***

So yeah, when hubby looks like that, it's kinda hard not to want to be in shape. Just tell those powdered donuts to stop calling my name, mmmkay?

Scale results this morning. 125.4. In yo face, muffin top!

Boot Crisis! Begging and pleading for your help!

So, I've been on the hunt for the perfect pair of gray knee high boots. Checked the mall, online, etc. Finally found the PERFECT ones in my price range, and of course, they don't have my size online. What are these perfect boots that I must own or I'll curl up and die, you ask?

And what is the store that has them, but only has them in a size 11 online? That would be Target.

When I went thru the reviews, it looks like people are still finding them in stores, sometimes even on clearance. But apparently where I live in Texas is sucky, and I'm unable to find them.

So this is where you come in, dear reader. With the insane price of gas, I don't expect you to run out to Target on the hunt for these. Not that I'd stop you if you did. But the next time you're in Target, if you wouldn't mind hitting up the shoe section and looking to see if your Target is awesomer than mine and if they carry these.

Looking for a size 7, but I'm sure I could make a 6.5 work. Or 7.5. I really want these if you couldn't tell.

So if they have them, if you'd pick them up for me and mail them to me. I'd reimburse you the cost of the boot (hopefully on clearance) and the shipping. And hell, I'll even throw in an extra $5 so you can have a Starbucks coffee, on me.

What I'm Loving Wednesday 3-16-2011

I'm joining a new link party. I've been seeing this one around, but haven't participated yet. But since today has been a kick ass kind of day.... voila.

What I'm Loving Wednesday

{one}

These high heel Mary Janes that I scored at Ross. For $15. Five inch heel with a one inch hidden platform. LOVE. And super comfy! But I've been known to wear super cute but uncomfy shoes, cause they're well, cute.

Oh, and I'm not really that pale. I'm about half that pale. And seeing my poor undecorated feet in these shoes just makes me want my foot tattoo all that much more. Pain be damned.

{two}

My bloggy BFF Lesley from So Fabulously Flawed. I know that I can count on her to read and comment on all the random crap that I post. And I can read any post on her blog and burst out laughing. Seriously. Heart this lady!

{three}

Same with Kristen from Who's Watching The Baby. Take all the info above, and replace "Lesley" with "Kristen".

{four} and {five}

This man right here. There is nothing sexier than an amazing dad. There is a quote, something about how I never knew how much I loved you until I saw how much you loved our child. SO TRUE.

And the fact that he didn't bat an eye when I told him I bought another pair of black dress shoes. I mean, women, we all know that we need different kinds of black dress shoes, right? Strappy, open toed, close toed, etc. They're all different.

{six}

The craft project that I've been working on, that is taking so much longer than I anticipated. Happy to be crafting again! I've been in a slump lately. Think $60 knock off for $4. Woot.

What's on Jen's phone? 3-15-2011

Tuesday. One of my favorite link party days.

The guidelines.

1. spend the week looking for interesting, funny, cute, special, lovely, ugly, silly, crude (okay maybe not crude), or other worthy pictures. and by that it pretty much means anything.

2. when you find them, snap a shot with your phone.

3. then on tuesday, upload it into your blog.

Jake texted me this picture from the plane. Ava and Jake went up to Minnesota from Tuesday-Thursday to visit his grandmother.

Which means I had some alone time with my older two girls.

The girls had their first practice on Wednesday. My mom went to Jasmin's soccer practice with her, and I went to Arielle's softball practice.

Hubby came back and had some freelance work waiting on him. Ava helped.

The girls went to a roller skating party.

Mommy and Daddy had fun too.

The girls' Spring Break started off with Phineas and Ferb.

Arielle left Jake and I a message outside. Love that girl!