2015 New Years Resolutions

It's that time of year again. And while I'm pretty sure I massively failed at last years resolutions. I'm excited for this years. Though I'm giving myself a break and only doing five instead of the usual ten. And without any further ado, here they are:

Let me expand a bit on these resolutions for you.

It has been my dream since the age of nine to have a book published and in the last few months I have taken that dream and worked on it even harder. I have a feeling 2015 will be my year to finish a book and begin getting it published. Whether it succeeds or fails, I don't really care, as long as my lifelong dream gets fulfilled.

I always dream of being a stay-at-home mom. Working as a fitness instructor in the mornings and coming home to blog and be with my children. I want to be a mother who cooks and cleans and makes the home a wonderful place for my children. While we don't know when we'll have children yet, I want to start preparing now. Learning to cook is my first step.

As mentioned in the last paragraph, I would love to be a fitness instructor. This is something I've actually thought of for many years, but never really pursued. I want to now though. And in order to teach fitness, I have to know how to exercise. I've been unhappy with my weight because I just keep gaining and it's time I do something about it. As I've stated many time before, my new life goal is to do the things that make me happy, gaining weight does not make me happy, therefore I have to get that out of my life.

Again, all I want in life is to do what makes me happy. I am not the person I want to be yet. There is so much that I feel is missing from my life. This year I turn 25 and that's a big deal to me. I may never have my life completely figured out, but I had always hoped that by my mid-twenties I would have a better idea of what my life would be like. I want to be a better person. I want to read my scriptures more, I want to blog more, I want to write, I want to give more, I want to share my thoughts with others more, I want to cook more, I want to be more clean, I want to craft more, I want to sew more, I want to stop sitting around watching TV all day, I want to be a hard worker, I want to save more money, I want to get my body in shape, I want to be with family more, I want to work towards starting a family, I want to make my home a sanctuary, I want to love my husband more... and the list goes on and on.

I have a strong feeling that this is my year, that I will accomplish something great this year if I just get off the couch, turn off the TV, and do something. This is my year, I will make this my year. There is so much that goes along with my last resolution, and I have such an incredible feeling that I'm going to make it, I'm going to succeed, and I'm going to become the person that I've been striving for my whole life.

Merry Christmas!

I just wanted to wish all my readers a very merry Christmas! I hope you have a wonderful day and that Santa brings you everything on your wishlist!! I love you all, I'm so grateful for your support and your amazing comments. Thank you for all you've done for me, it's been the best Christmas gift ever. Thank you and MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

Making My Christmas Sweater!!

Alright, this isn't the best tutorial, and I didn't edit the photos (because I'm really lazy) so yeah... I'm not good at tutorials. I don't do them often for a reason.

So the Christmas tree I made is a just a removable patch type thing that I put on my shirt/sweater with safety pins. I liked this idea better than making a permanent Christmas sweater, for now, I do intend to make a really ugly one next year.

Anyways, here's the very basic steps to what I did.

Firstly are the things needed. I bought a paper sized sheet of felt, green ribbon, snowflake button embellishments, and fabric glue.

I started by cutting the felt into a triangle/Christmas tree shape. Then I began gluing the ribbon lengthwise along the tree, overlapping it and trying (but, as shown by the picture, failing) to keep them even.

Then I waited for a while because I didn't realize the glue I bought took 2-4 hours to dry. Ugh! I'm pretty sure a hot glue gun would have worked just as well as fabric glue and would have dried faster. But you can do what you want. 

I don't have pictures for the next part. but I began to cut strips into the ribbon, like fringe. It was the most annoying part because I didn't have good scissors at first. I ended up using my kitchen scissors because they were much sharper than my kid scissors I usually use. I need craft scissors though. There are so many craft things I need... 

The next step was gluing on the snowflakes. I was going to use rhinestones as sparkly ornaments for my tree, but I was super lucky to find these snowflake buttons that were actually much cheaper. I just glued them on in random places with the fabric glue. Honestly, this is the most obvious tutorial.

I loved the way it turned out!! Then I just pinned it onto my shirt with safety pins, but you could always glue or sew it on if you want it permanent. 

I really did love how this turned out! I can't wait till I can finally make my ugly one, it'll be awesome. Just you wait. 

Sorry this is such a simple tutorial, but it honestly was an incredibly simple craft and I loved doing it. I want to do more craft tutorials so that might be coming soon, we'll see. 

Merry Christmas! 

My Christmas Sweater!

I made a Christmas sweater!! I had an idea for a really ugly/awesome one but apparently Walmart doesn't have the stuff. And a sewing machine would have been nice. So I opted for one that I could do without a sewing machine, and for a cuter one, which was good because barely anyone at work even wore ugly sweaters so I'm glad that I didn't wear the awfully good and atrocious sweater that I had pictured in my mind and I do intend to make. 

I do believe I will give a quick tutorial on how I made this sweater and I will post it tomorrow!! Yay!! It was super simple, but a little time consuming due to a much longer drying time of fabric glue than I had expected and incredibly dull children's scissors. 

So I'm excited to show you all my wonderful sweater, with removeable Christmas tree (Yes, bonus for my tutorial, it can be applied to any shirt!), my favorite coat, my newish jeans that I'm in love with, and my new favorite shoes. I'm basically in love with this whole outfit. And I was having a good hair day, so it was a win-win kind of day. 

Coat: Overstock; Shirt: Walmart; Pants: Walmart; Shoes: Kohl's

Oh, and the shirt and shoes are directly linked to the exact ones I'm wearing. This shirt is like $8 and I love it. I'm going back and getting more. The coat a bought a long time ago, but Overstock often has great finds. The pants are LEI, which is where the link leads, but not to the direct pants I'm wearing. 

And here's a couple fun Christmas sweaters: