Design On a Dime: Christmas Pictures

If you're anything like me, you love to go to Michael's (& Hobby Lobby). A lot. And you probably married someone like my husband... The Jew (I can say this bc I am, in fact, 1/2 Jewish. He's Catholic. Dad's Christian. I'm a Chew. Judge away. If you can't laugh about that, I'm sorry but we can't be friends.)

So my Scrooge put a limit to our spending each month which has REALLY got me prioritizing. It's crazy. Thank God for Pinterest, but even then, I'll look and think, "holy crap, there's no way her house can look like that without being broke"... 

Then, I had an epiphany. 

I remembered my inner Jew. I thought, "Hell, I'm creative. I can do this without breaking the bank!" And I did. 

So my Pinterest inspiration came in the form of fabric-covered canvases for every holiday. Now, I do love me some fabric and canvases... But it's expensive and I have kids. Boys, actually, so you know whatever I make needs to be cheap bc it is not going to make survive them. 

My solution: cover existing picture frames with wrapping paper. I wish I had taken step by step instructions, but it's pretty self explainitory. Lay the picture frame "picture-side down" and wrap the frame. Do not wrap the back (or if you do, leave the picture hanger brackets exposed). Then hang it up! 

Not too shabby!! I got the wrapping paper and tape from the Dollar Store... So this whole thing was on about 75¢

Be sure to post your creative projects on to MOOSEink's FB page!!!

Elmo on the Shelf

Day 1 of no Facebook was actually stressful. It was weird. I had anxiety (I'm not ashamed to admit) like, "what the hell is going on with my friend's lives?!" 

Or something funny would happen and I wanted to post it right then and there... Then remembered I gave up FB for awhile. I'm telling you, it's like being angry at your best friend, then having something eventful happen to just moments later and you end up getting pissed at yourself bc you want to tell your best friend, then can't bc you're in a fight. I'm sure it'll get easier as the days go by, but I feel a little like a recovering addict (ok, it's not the same thing at all, but I've never been addicted to anything other than Oreos and Caffeine so cut me some slack). 

For instance, I went to the gym today (if you are my FB friend, you'll remember how the chicken nugget incident with Jman last week and my vow to work out every day...) and for realz, my kid DOES NOT STOP TALKING. Ever. A lot of his questions are relevant to the current conversation, but then he throws those curve balls and you think, "my gosh, how did his little brain come up with THAT question?!" I used to listen to Pandora in an effort to have a little peace and quiet while we drive, but no, it had to stop. One can only listen to Toddler Radio on Pandora for so long before one snaps. It's true. 

So today, our conversation consisted of Elmo on the Shelf. I tried the typical Elf on the Shelf, but, alas, J was afraid to even walk by it. So it had to go. Luckily, this happened at my dad/step mom's house so I didn't have to find a way to return it to the store after I told him it was magical. Lol. So anyways, we decided ELMO on the shelf was a safer bet. Now, here's the thing about Elmo, he just does not like to make messes. He knows that I have to clean up 99.99% of the messes in our house and he just wants to go easy on me. So every night Elmo goes back to SANTA and tells him if my boys were good or bad. The next morning, Elmo hides and waits to be found by the boys. If they were good the night before, they each get a piece of candy before breakfast. If they were bad, they get nothing. (Mwahahahahahahahah) Anyways, so we're in the car and J wants to know why Elmo is reporting to Santa and not the elves. I told him all the Elves are super busy making the toys for Christmas so SANTA hired Elmo to do this for him. He thinks about it and asks a TON of questions: well, how does Elmo get to Santa's house? Teleportation.  What is teleportation? Going from one place to another without having to drive, walk or fly. Your body gets blown into a billion pieces and then gets put back together at the new place you want to go.  *crying ensues bc he doesn't want to get blown up* When are we seeing Santa? After Thanksgiving. Well, you bet your bottom I'll be asking if all of this is true.

Shit. 

Well, guess I better hope he is so "in awe" of the big guy that he forgets and I'm off the hook... Or let's hope the Santa we see is amazing at rolling with it and goes along with my story... 

Ah, in other news, the baby is talking more and every time he says something to me, he likes me to repeat it. If I'm correct in guessing what he's saying, he'll give a great big chuckle. And damn it if it isn't the cutest thing I've ever heard. We read his favorite book tonight (it's a Farm book that has everything about a farm illustrated. Cool book.) normally, G turns straight to the food section and we spend the whole time going over what each food item is multiple times. Then, he usually realizes this has made him hungry and he needs a 2nd dessert. So I'll get him some crackers and he goes to bed. Well tonight, he just wanted the animal sounds page. I video taped it and sent it to my family. They had to see it. I would say an animal sound and he would repeat it. Not just that, but if I shook my head or did something I don't realize I'm doing, he would copy that too. Ah, Geesh. He's. Little shit, but when he does cute things like that, I forget all about how he drew on the wall with my charcoal pencil, or stuffed mashed cauliflower up his nose/on his hair/in his ear, threw numerous tantrums for only God knows what and slapped the dog (yes, he was out in time out a lot again today). And now, that little guy is out cold and looking so peaceful I can't help but love him. Alright, his slate has just been wiped clean. Hahahah. 

On that note, I'm going to get off here and try to ninja my way out of his room before he wakes up. I just put a new door-handle lock on his door so if I am able to get out without having to text Steve to come open the door, I'm grabbing a White Chocolate Covered Oreo (they just came out with them this month and I have ZERO self control... I believe j already mentioned that before...) and getting back to my drawings. Laundry can wait and so can cleaning my house. It'll get done once the holiday season is over. Ha! Who am I kidding, it'll get done the next time my In Laws or Step Mom come to visit me. 

Becca OUT!!

RIP Ferguson and Facebook... The blog must go on!

So, after being called a racist because I am white and apparently that's how "all whites are", I have decided to leave Facebook for a little bit. Sadly, I have a ton of opinions and rile easily. It's a curse I've inherited from my MotherInLaw. Hahahaha. However, my boys continue to be hilarious so I will be starting a series basically consisting of short stories that happen day-to-day. 

Being a woman, I love to talk. So I am happy people still want me to continue my blog! Thanks everyone!! Hopefully, I'll be able to update this so much that I won't need Facebook anymore!! I'll also be on Instagram, under the name of my art business, MOOSEink. I'll also be posting to MOOSEink's Facebook page with all of my art projects! Can I get a heck-yeah!?

Ok, enough of that...let's get to the cream filling. And I've got Mega Stuffed stories to tell y'all. 

This year has been a roller coaster of emotions for me, from being stalked by a maintenance man to having so many weddings, we were back in STL at least once a month. So to say I'm happy NOT to be traveling home for the holidays, is an understatement. Imagine if you were told cookie dough had no calories... That's about how excited I am. And it's a good thing we're not traveling, bc my boys have been T E R R O R S. 

My day consisted of making verbal threats to my boys and having quite a bit of those threats result in "time out". *gasp* say it isn't so!?!?! Well, it is. I'm a fun-sucker, what can I say? I actually just got a basketball thrown at my face by the baby as I was typing. Little stinker is being a little terror. So, time out for the 5th time today. 

And I mean really, LOOK at that sweet face. He would never, EVER be a bad baby... Ha!

He doesn't understand the true meaning of Christmas yet (... You know the one where parents make empty threats about calling SANTA to tell him the kids were bad so NO PRESENTS this year... Yeah, I'll go into detail on that in just a minute) so the only thing that has been working is the dreaded TIME. OUT. <insert evil laughter and freaky music for effect> J, on the other hand, is 4 and believes so deeply that I only need to make a threat once and he behaves. Now, I DO realize presents are not the true meaning of Christmas, but I'm telling YA, after constantly telling them no! Sit down! Your brother is not a punching bag! DON'T give that to the dog! Stop rolling around on the floor! EAT. YOUR. FOOD. ... You kind of have to resort to trickery if you want to survive. 

Back to J-man:

We got the Toys -R- Us catalogue in the mail (fantastic marketing, by the way) and I decided it would be easier to look through it first, before giving it to J. It back fired. I wrote his letter on top of certain pages and he was only allowed to circle items from the pages with his letter on them. While I was busy patting myself on the back for my intelligence, he was busy circling away. He circled E V E R Y item. Then he went back and wrote his letter on other pages and circled those items too. THEN, he wanted the first letter of mine, my husband's and the baby's so he could circle items for us too. The whole darn book is useless now bc I can't read anything... Everything is circled!!

Smh. I have him a marker and he went all ape-$=!t crazy on me. In all honesty, it was hilarious bc this whole event was spread out over the course of a week. So he would probably go to school, hear one of his friends say something and come home and say he wanted it too. And his memory is amazing. To the point of it being annoying bc he recalls events in such clarity that when I try and beat around the bush on an answer to something, he'll say, "no no no! Remember THIS is what happened". And he's usually right. 

So the girls in his class have been talking about Barbies. (I loved Barbies. I let J play with MY Barbies when we were at my dad's house, but he used their poor bodies as drum sticks and weapons so his privileges were revoked.) Anytime a Barbie commercial comes on, without fail, J will say, "ewwww gross! Barbies! I hate Barbies"... That was until the Curl and Style Barbie (or whatever she is called) came on TV. You can curl her hair with a wand and rollers and then brush it straight again. Magic. 

He makes sure to say his normal line of awful things about Barbies, but for her, he tells me he is buying me that for Christmas. At first he said it was bc I needed a girl (thanks, mom. I know you put him up to it) but then changed his tune when I said I didn't need it. "But I need it!" AHA! Barbie truly is amazing!!

Hahahaha

So now I have to shop online for that damned Barbie bc I really don't want to go Black Friday Shopping... unless it's to Michael's.