My Crazy Christmas Craft Kick

In the Crane household, it was obvious that Pinterest came to be this year. 
I found all these DIY craft ideas and with Christmas coming up, I couldn't resist. 
It was SO fun. 
And it is what got me through death-week finals, I was so excited to get started on my crafts! My cute friend Natalie (no wonder I like her!) got in on it with me, so we worked on them together! Trent and I just love Natalie and Ryan. We could hang out with them for days on end. It does get a little confusing sometimes when our husbands say "Nat?" and we both say "yes?" haha.

My first craft I did, found on Pinterest, was a menu board. We LOVED the idea so we decided to copy it. Here's a little tutorial if ya wanna make one yourself! It was cheap and fun and was easy to stylize how you wanted :) I made this for my mom, but I was tempted to keep it for myself!

First we got a bulletin board from Walmart for $6.50, two different prints of scrapbook paper (red paisley and light blue for me), pushpins, clips, ribbon, 5x7 cards, and paint.

First, paint the bulletin board. 

Then, we painted the clips and pushpins (funny I know).

Then size the paper to the board and cut it out so the prints line up. This was the hardest part believe it or not! We tried using modpodge to glue it to the board, but it curled. So we then tried using nail glue, but that didn't really work either. We then tried a plain old glue stick and that seemed to work pretty well. 

Cut out squares of paper for the days of the week and for the two pockets. We used a stencil and paint to put the letters on. 

I asked my mom a few weeks prior (in a discreet way) to give me a list of things she liked to make for dinner (I "needed ideas" hehe) and I wrote those out on the cut slips of paper, and left some blank ones too for her to write her own on when she thought of more.

Then just glue on the letters of the day, attach the ribbon with the pushpins, attach the pockets with pushpins, put the 5x7 cards in one pocket (to write the recipes on), put the slips of paper in the other pocket, and attach the clips! Way fun, easy, and turned out great! 
This was Natalie's (the other Nat)

And this was mine, yay!

Meanwhile... While Nat and I are busy being little artsy busy crafters, here is what our husbands did.

 playing each other in FIFA Soccer...

The second craft we did was also Pinterest inspired. I made this one for my Grandma & Grandpa Hansen. I couldn't find holly anywhere. I tried Walmart, the dollar stores, everywhere. But when I went to Michaels, I found this glorious thing. It was this big strand decoration thing of holly originally $30 but was 60% off. I found the same thing at Hobby Lobby for $70, and not on sale! I was blown away how expensive it was supposed to be! But we got a good deal. Anyways... I also got a tiny glue gun which I have been needing (like $3 at Walmart), mini glue sticks (way cheap), and the wooden letter from Michaels (only $4). The example from Pinterest we saw used burlap ribbon and was SO cute. We looked everywhere for it and had no luck. So we just found some cute gold ribbon at Hobby Lobby (and then a few days after Christmas I happened to see some burlap ribbon in Taipan... oh well!)

Basically it's really easy. You just get some berries and hot glue them on. It does take a while, but its really easy.

The "holly" is really just styrofoam little balls, so when you rip them apart it tears a little part of the ball off if that makes sense, so a lot of them had white spots on them.

 We took some red paint and just did a quick coat over the white spots. I took this second picture in different lighting so it looks like there are still white spots haha.

And then you tie your ribbon in a bow, attach some sort of a hook (we realized we would need a hook when we were done and used the ends of little holly branch, luckily they worked perfect!), hot glue them all together, and there you have it!

Nat did a "G" for her mother in law. They turned out so cute!

 Thanks Nat for being my partner in crime! :)


The next little project I did was one I have been wanting to do for a while! A couple years ago I discovered Uppercase Living at a friends house. They do the cutest vinyl expressions that are the big thing nowdays. I found a phrase that reminded me of my cute Grandpa Adamson who just LOVES to fish. So I ordered it and away I went. 
I needed wooden boards for a few different projects as you will see so I went to Home Depot with my brother Riley and got a big huge sheet of wood for a great price! I had them cut it down to the sizes I needed and we were good to go! As we were walking to the car, Riley was like "geez, I need to bring you with me every time i come here... it's not every day a little blonde girl comes in needing stuff from them!" Apparently i can get what i want at home depot! haha
Anyways, so I sized the wood to the expression, sanded it, and painted it a cream/beige color

Then Trent helped me line up the expression
 
and rub it on! I think it turned out cute :) 

But wait... there's more! 
One more project I did. 
So in Trent's family, the siblings all draw names and they do homemade gifts! I think that is the cutest idea and has been SO fun the last two years they've done it. It makes the gift so much more meaningful than your typical gift card or something - even though gift cards are great too :) 
So I drew his little sister Hallie. She just turned 12 this year and graduated to Young Women's! Haha. So I saw something, once again on Pinterest, that sparked this idea. Basically it is a wooden board with a cute quote on it to hang in her room. So i got a wooden board 12x28, sanded it

and painted the sides that same cream color

 

I have a big pad of different papers, picked a bunch that matched the colors of her room and arranged them how I wanted.  

To explain the quote I chose, I don't really remember where I first heard it, but I got it on a little handout when I was little and have remembered it ever since. I love it and it makes me remember who I really am :) I thought it would be good for Hallie too going through Young Women's and those crazy teenage years. 

So it was hard to decide how to put the words on the paper, but I ended up going with a few stickers, but for the most part I used stencils and painted it. 

But first I modpodged the papers onto the board (and forgot to take a picture before I got started haha)

 Then i figured out how i wanted to arrange the words, which font and size to use, etc.  

 Then I used the stencils, and painted it on! I don't know if i would necessarily recommend doing this, haha. It takes FOREVER...

 then i added the final touches, some little bling crystal things, stick on pearls, and it was finished!

Here is the final thing. Hope she likes it!

Well that's the end of my crazy Christmas craft kick. Here is all of them together, minus the quote board for Hallie. 

 I loved having time to sit and do fun girly things, it was so nice. If any of you have more craft ideas that you need a friend to work on it with, let me know haha. Oh and i would love to know if any of you decide to do any of these! And if you don't already have Pinterest, watch out... If you decide to get one, it might just make you a crazy person like me :) haha

Our Dog that Lasted a Week

Well, we had a puppy for a week. 

I had been begging Trent to let us get one for ever, and so finally we found one that we liked. His friend from Vernal was giving him away for free so we decided we would try it. 

I knew it wasn't gonna be the best idea, but I just wanted to try it so bad (Hello can you blame me?! i've never had a dog my whole life!!) that i couldn't resist. I knew it was a bad idea in the first place because A. Trent and i are gone like all day every day at work or school, B. because we live in a condo complex with neighbors under us and next to us, and C. because our apartment is not the biggest place you've ever seen. 

But on the other hand, if you have a kid, you can't just give it back or change your mind. You have to keep the kid for the rest of your life. But if you get a puppy, you can always sell it or give it away to someone else :) yes to selling puppies, no to selling babies haha. So if we decided it wasn't gonna work I would at least get my dog fix and then we could give him away. 

Anyways, we got Benji. We loved Benji. He was SO dang cute. I mean just look at the lil fella!

His first walk. He was so funny, he had to sniff EVERYTHING! It took us like 10 minutes just to get down one side of the block!

We learned some funny things about Benji (We picked out his name by the way, in case you were wondering. So cute, i know.) First, we taught him how to fetch. This was my favorite, and probably another reason our downstairs neighbors probably don't like us.

 Second, he LOVED us. When we came home, he would FREAK out. He loved our attention. He would be totally fine if he could just hang out by us. And while he was sleeping too! He would NOT go to sleep at night unless he was by us, meaning on our bed with us (on a towel). After we finally gave in each night and put him on our bed, he was fine all night. He didn't wake up until we did. Yes and i was the girl that said i would NEVER let a dog sleep on my bed. Oh crap, I'm gonna be a pushover mom. haha kidding. Trent just looked at that last sentence and said "yeahhh right..." :)

I thought this was so funny. Watching football together, this was when we knew he was a true boy :)

 Speaking of sleeping, it seemed like Benji could never get comfy. He would keep moving around in the weirdest positions, it was so funny. 

Exhibit A:

And my personal favorite...

His favorite spot to hang out when we weren't looking was under our couch. Not under it on the floor, but literally, right under it. He found a little hole, ripped it open and got up in there. Oh geez. Trent snapped a picture right as he was trying to capture him before he got up in there. PS This is our ugly couch that we won the ugly couch contest with (post on that coming later) that was made worse thanks to Benji

 

Benji also LOVED to pee anywhere BUT his designated pee mat. Yes this is me after i stepped in a pee puddle.

Trent & I set our bag with all our overnight stuff on one of the sofas, which he was too little to jump up on. We came to find somehow he did get to it and wanted to brush his teeth... with our sonicare toothbrushes...

Haha i was so mad but i still think it is so funny. I'm laughing so hard just thinking about it. The funny thing is I asked trent if he just wanted to put his brush tip through his UV sanitizer and use it again, and he gave me the funniest look like i just asked him if he wanted to, well, brush with the same toothbrush our dog just chewed and slobbered on. Then i realized how stupid that question was! haha! The joys of having a dog. I got my dog fix for a while and we are not having another one until we have a house with a yard :) I made it sound like he was a terror dog, but really he was so cute and so fun. We did love having him for a week! After we gave him to a cute family from KSL we also have loved NOT having a puppy and having one less thing to worry about. Sorry Benj. And sorry neighbors for our experimental pet whim :)

A Lil Fall Hike

On Conference Sunday, Trent and I went on a hike up at Solitude Resort. He lost his iPhone 4 up there snowboarding last season so we went to go see if we could find it, haha. It ended up being the last nice day before it snowed that next week, so it was perfect timing! it was BEAUTIFUL!!!

We had our handy iphones turned to the radio so we could listen to conference as we hiked! That was cool. 

So as we got pretty far up, I thought we were about there, SOMEONE kept saying "We're almost there, it's just right up here..." So i think we are there and Trent goes "Oh babe, we still have to go way up by that house at the top of the mountain." I'm not sure if you can even see it, but you can kinda see the top of the roof at the top of the mountain. This picture is looking like straight up, mind you...

It was such a pretty hike though looking down at all the trees changing colors!

Warning: Avalanche Areea... Yeah it was STEEP (for a little girl like me, I'm a baby. It was nothing for Trent of course)

Can you see the roof of the house?! We made it to the top!! 

 Trent found a ski!

 Um see that tiny little road?? Keep in mind that is where we started walking from. Yeah it was a long hike. 

I'm not sure why i liked this little old dried up flower thing so much, but i thought it was cool, haha

Here we have THE BEST rock thrower of the century. he knocked down every single pine cone on this tree by throwing a rock, haha. Does it look like he could fall off the side of the mountain down into those tiny trees with one wrong step? Yeah i thought so too. Made me nervous! haha

 We decided to do the traditional little we-wanna-mark-our-territory-by-carving-our-initials-on-an-aspen-tree and did just that :) so precious, i know.

My contribution was the little leaf-heart :)

what a cute lil outdoorsy hubby i have

Although we had no luck finding the iPhone, it was such a pretty hike!