My new favorite place..my crafting space!

Hi everyone!

I thought I would share with you all (and with the judges of a contest at "Craftbaby") my crafting space! Here is where I get down and dirty with everything from sculpting clay to fat quarters of fabric to Mod Podge galore!! After years of hauling my crafting supplies around in plastic bins from garage to garage, I FINALLY have a fully dedicated space to let loose and get creative!! 

 The room is a bit awkward to photograph, so this is taken from the entry door, but as you can see, IKEA outfit me with wonderful storage! The Expedit series is so versatile-I highly recommend it! You might notice I'm in the middle of cutting fabric for the twin duvet covers I hope to piece together with Jill Blissenbach next week! It's a lot of measuring!

 No craft room would be complete without Christmas lights!! Also, I broke down and bought a ribbon holder, which I haven't put up yet (lower right corner) and I used the lower rod for a large roll of scratch paper for practice sketches and for the nieces when they come to visit and want to draw! I have also loaded my craft room with every fabulous RomCom that I could watch one billion times (including "Bridesmaids", "When Harry Met Sally" and "Music and Lyrics" to name a few!) as well as old 80's and 90's sitcom DVDs because you can just NEVER have enough of those!

 LOVE the magnetic strips from IKEA! They work GREAT for scissors and the spice tins are wonderful for small pieces such as tacks, bottle caps, etc. I found the buckets at Goodwill for $.50 each!

All of the containers I'm using (except for the IKEA bins) are from either the Dollar Store or Goodwill. I've got containers of EVERY size and shape, and I find I'm always running out of them!!!

 So just in case you were curious what I'm up to these days, I'm working on making a banner for my son's "Monster Mash" 1st Birthday party in mid-March. So I've been cutting out felt "monsters" and practicing! I hope to make themed monster cupcakes, and Elmo cake (he was a monster after all!) and put out supplies so participates can make their own "monsters" using velcro to attach arms, legs, eyes, etc. We'll see how it turns out!

And of course.. I'm CUTTING FABRIC like a crazy person!!! I promised Jill I would be DETAILED and careful with the measurements, and there is ALOT to cut, hence why I'm awake at 1:44 AM rather than sleeping!! But I'm so excited about the duvet covers! I can't wait to finish them and share them with you!

So what does your craft space look like?? Or better yet, what does your DREAM craft space look like? I have TONS of inspiration ideas pinned to my boards on Pinterest if you're looking for inspiration! And I'd love to hear your ideas!!

'Night all!

Game On: MN style Round #1 COMPLETE!

Quick update on Game On! for those of you who may be interested..

So our 4 week competition comes to completion tomorrow-and I can definately say it was a success! I lost 5 lbs. by week two, but thanks to a tasty vacation (which caused me to lose quite a few points! grrr! but the Poutine was WORTH it!) I ended losing just 3 lbs. total.  BUT, outside of losing weight, I haven't bitten my nails since we began! And for someone who used to bite them UNTIL THEY BLED (yes,  I know-YICK) this is HUGE!!! I only wish I had a before shot so you could see how amazing this is!!

Also, thanks to Game ON, I have been doing my "30 day Shred" video almost daily-and I can FEEL my body composition starting to change. I feel inklings of my "pre-baby body" and it gives me hope I might get back there again!

Another highlight is due to my teammate and friend, Miss Stacy Nathan! She encouraged and (well, practically dragged at times) challenged me to run again, and get back to a 10 minute mile!! And we DID it~! We ran 3.4 miles last Wednesday together at 10 min. each mile, and now I'm signing up to run a 7k on St. Patty's with Stace...whew!! So I'd say we have some progress!!

I'm still struggling with eating choices, but Weight Watchers is a great program-when I stick to it!! And all this water intake was good too-I've learned that adding cucumber, lemon and mint leaves can make water taste FABULOUS, and freezing it in ice cubes is a handy trick as well!

I've learned lots of other things, but that's a blog for a different day! Right now, I have to stick with my new habit of getting 7 hours of sleep each night!! After all-if what they say is true "anything can be fixed with a GOOD NIGHTS SLEEP" then tomorrow should be a fantastic day!

Adios Amigos!

Got me some crafty friends, I DO!!

Hey everybody!

So I have some pretty crazy crafty friends-they are QUITE inspiring I must say!!! Here is a quick look at some of the craftiness that's been happening lately thanks to Mrs. Ashleigh Johnson and Mrs. Jenn Hubal!! Be impressed.. I am!

 Here is the lovely Ashleigh...for our playgroup on Valentine's Day, Ashleigh put together mini heart pizzas!! They were delicious (and off of Pinterest of course!) the kids AND adults loved them!!)

 For dessert, she cut hearts out of rice krispies and dipped them in chocolate and sprinkles.. froze them outside for a bit... SO DELICIOUS! Also a Pinterest inspired creation!

 It's Jenn's little girl, Hannah's birthday this week-so I helped her make a butterfly banner for her party! We used some funky glitter scrapbook paper and created the template ourselves, and then hung it using fishing line.. I thought it came out quite well!!

As for other craftiness, I'm working on cutting the fabric for the duvet quilts that Jill and I will be putting together in early March-but more on that to come!!!

'night all!

Weigh Ins, Poutine and Pins in the Kitchen?

Hi all,

So sorry to be absent lately-I've been a traveling mamma! My husband and I whisked away for a weekend of relaxation, adventure and...HOCKEY in Montreal, Canada! We had a GREAT time, and enjoyed some AMAZING food! Check it out!

 Belgian Dark Chocolate Crepes-for Breakfast??!! Oh YES my friends!!!

 a HEALTHY version of Eggs Benedict?? Less than 900 calories and DELECTABLE!! YUM! Even the veggies!

The highlight of our trip (other than the hockey and massages!)-Poutine!! Imagine the most SCRUMPTIOUS french fries smothered in a light gravy with chunks of the creamiest cheese imaginable...and NO I WILL NOT list the calorie content... it ruins the amazing-ness of the dish!

So for those of you who are paying attention, you might recall I'm on a DIET right now... you'll be happy to know that 80% of this amazing food was consumed on my day off..which didn't bode well for my weigh in this past week, but was admittedly fun in the process! Isn't that always the way it goes?? So it was an AWESOME getaway, but I'm paying for it dietwise... but we still have one more week to go for GAME ON... so time will tell if I've fallen off the "get healthy" wagon completely!!

As for the " Pin-a-week" update, since my partner in crime Jenn was in Florida this week, I decided to try out a few recipes I've found on pinterest instead.  Here are the results, and my thoughts on how they turned out! 

Do It Yourself mini fruit pizzas! I made sugar cookies and a light cream cheese frosting and put fruit in bowls, and then let folks put together their own concoctions! They were DELICIOUS and EASY!

This is the Crispy Cheesy Chicken PRIOR to baking... I made this along with a Corn casserole for some friends we had over this past weekend- it got RAVE reviews from our friends (and me!) It wasn't terribly diet friendly, but it was DELICIOUS!! (and SO easy to make!!!)

As for other CRAFTY projects, my friend Jill and I just finished buying the fabric to make two twin quilted duvet covers for our new cabin's guest room-so we'll update you as things progress-but here is the fabric we'll be working with!

So, as you can see, things have been happening, but it's been a little nutty around the Ebling house-and FAR too much yummy food has been consumed!! So this week and next we'll be working on getting "back on the healthy/crafty/routine wagon!"

Keep it crafty people! More to come soon!